Method for determining the surface characteristics of targets

1. A method for in situ determination of surface characteristics of conductive targets, the method comprising:

a) generating a low-pressure plasma in front of a surface of a target;

b) applying a voltage to the surface of the target;

c) orientating at least one light-sensitive detector at an angle θ relative to a perpendicular to the surface of the target;

d) measuring an intensity of light emitted by electrically neutral atoms generated by conversion from ions which are accelerated out of the low-pressure plasma by the applied voltage toward the surface of the target and subsequently reflected thereon, and which thus exchange suitable charges with the surface to reach electrical neutrality;

e) determining a value curve comprising wavelengths and an intensity associated with each wavelength, of the light which, as a result of Doppler shifts, has a red-shifted wavelength range having smaller wavelengths than a wavelength λ 0 of the light emitted by atoms stationary relative to the detector and a blue-shifted range having wavelengths greater than λ 0 ;

f) determining a velocity v of a atoms which emit light of a wavelength λ from the value curve using

v

=

λ

λ

-

λ

0

·

c

,

where c is the speed of light, and from this determining respective kinetic energies E of the atoms using ε=1/2m 1 ν 2 , where m 1 is a mass of each of the reflected atoms;

g) determining an energy value E max as a smallest of the measured wavelengths of a particular energy from which all values of the intensity of the value curve are greater than or equal to an intensity value of background noise of the detector signal; and

h) determining a mass m 2 of atoms of the surface using the formula:

E

max

=

[

(

m

2

2

-

m

1

2

⁢

sin

2

⁢

θ

)

1

/

2

-

m

2

·

cos

⁢

⁢

θ

m

3

+

m

2

]

2

·

E

0

,

where E 0 is the kinetic energy of each of the ions upon striking the surface and is equal to the absolute value of the applied voltage.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein intensity values of the value curve determined at an applied voltage of zero volts are subtracted from intensity values of a value curve determined at a voltage other than zero volts.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a maximum intensity value Ĩ is determined from the blue-shifted and red-shifted wavelength ranges of the value curve determined in step e), the wavelength {tilde over (λ)} associated with this intensity value according to the value curve, and subsequently the difference Δλ=λ 0 −{tilde over (λ)} between the wavelength λ 0 and the wavelength {tilde over (λ)}, are calculated, subsequently the intensity l 1 at λ 0 +Δλ is determined, and subsequently a spectral reflectivity in relation to the specular reflection r s is calculated using

r

s

=

I

1

I

~

.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a first value being a maximum intensity in a wavelength range between the wavelength λ 0 −Δλ max and the wavelength λ 0 −Δλ max sin(θ);

determining a second value being a maximum intensity in a wavelength range between the wavelength λ 0 +Δλ max sin(θ) and the wavelength λ 0 +Δλ max ; and

determining a spectral reflectivity by dividing the smaller of the first value and the second value by the larger of the first value and the second value.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein from a set of value curves, in which each value curve was measured at a different angle θ in a range of 0° to 90°, a value curve having a highest intensity is selected.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, to determine an angle θ having a highest maximum intensity of light, a value curve at an angle of θ=90° between the detector and the normal vector perpendicular to the surface of the target is determined.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein an angular distribution of atoms after reflection on the surface is determined by adaptation of value curves determined using a TRIM or SRIM code to the value curve measured at an angle θ, the adaptation being implemented in particular by a least-squares method.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein an angular distribution of the atoms after reflection on a planar surface of a target is determined in that, from a set of value curves which have a profile in accordance with the formula cos b (θ), for an angle θ relative to the perpendicular to the surface of the target and a shaping parameter b, the value curve is determined which in accordance with the least-squares method best matches the value curve measured at an angle θ.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a voltage of −500 V to 0 V is applied to the surface of the target.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a pressure in the low-pressure plasma is 0.01 Pa to 0.1 Pa.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the plasma comprises argon or hydrogen or deuterium or mixtures of these elements.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, to determine the value curve, spectral lines from the Balmer series of atoms reflected from the surface of the target and Doppler shifts of these spectral lines are measured.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the plasma comprises mixtures of argon or krypton or hydrogen or deuterium.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the target comprises atoms of carbon or aluminum.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the target has a purity level of 95% to 100%.

16. A device for carrying out the method according to claim 1 , comprising a source of low-pressure plasmas, a voltage source, a target, and a photon detector.