Oxygen depth profiling by activation with the16O(3He,p,)18F reaction

A technique has been developed for oxygen depth profiling in a thickness range of 5 to about 100 mg cm⁻² by activation with the¹⁶O(³He, p)¹⁸F reaction. An apparatus was set up for the activation of oxygen with a uniform probability along the depth, and a method has been devised for step-wise etching of the activated sample. This technique has been applied to the study of oxygen behaviour in heat treatment of silicon under various conditions.