Depth profiling of carbon and nitrogen in copper using nuclear reactions

Simultaneous implantations of 12C and 15N were performed into copper using the non-deviated beam line of a 2 MV Tandetron accelerator. The atomic composition of the implanted layer was measured using appropriate nuclear reactions with a 1.05 MeV deuteron beam. 12C(d, p0)13C and 15N(d, α0)13C nuclear reactions were used to depth profile simultaneously 12C and 15N and to determine the relative contribution of multi-ionised 12C and 15N ions to the carbon and nitrogen distribution. We also used the narrow resonance at 429 keV of the 15N(p, αγ)12C nuclear reaction to check the validity of our results. The depth distributions obtained with this resonant nuclear reaction confirmed that (d, p) and (d, α) reactions are well suited to profile both carbon and nitrogen elements with a quite good resolution. Moreover, using these reactions makes possible to profile 12C and 15N atoms with a single and relatively rapid measurement.