Unfolding slow muon depth profiles with universal range distributions

Abstract

The analysis of depth-dependent data of thin film semiconductor heterostructures is discussed in this work. The data is obtained by varying muon implantation energy, E, using the Low-Energy Muon (LEM) facility at PSI, Switzerland. Since the measurement method has a finite resolution, unfolding of the measured profile with the resolution function is required. The unfolding can be performed in the real space (that is in depth variable x), using range distribution function, P(x,E), obtained by Monte Carlo simulations. As will be shown, it is much simpler to perform the unfolding in the implantation energy space and to transform the results afterwards into real space. This simplifies the analysis considerably, since the universal range distributions can be used, independent of the specific sample.