Development of non-contact hardness measurements with crater formations by gas cluster ions

摘要

Crater formations with gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) were used for non-contact hardness measurement of thin films. The crater inner diameter formed with size-selected Ar cluster ions decreased with inverse cube root of film hardness. When the total acceleration energy was the same, cluster size did not affect the crater inner diameter. In addition, high ionization electron voltage (Ve) cause wide distribution of crater depth and diameter due to multiply charged GCIB.