Timmers, HeikoDall (previously Weijers), TessicaElliman, RobertUribasterra, JWhitlow, H JSarwe, E-L2015-12-130168-583Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/73051Measurements of the stoichiometry of silicon nitride films as a function of the number of incident ions using heavy ion elastic recoil detection (ERD) show that beam-induced nitrogen depletion depends on the projectile species, the beam energy, and the initial stoichiometry. A threshold stoichiometry exists in the range 1.3 > N/Si ≥ 1, below which the films are stable against nitrogen depletion. Above this threshold, depletion is essentially linear with incident fluence. The depletion rate correlates non-linearly with the electronic energy loss of the projectile ion in the film. Sufficiently long exposure of nitrogen-rich films renders the mechanism, which prevents depletion of nitrogen-poor films, ineffective. Compromising depth-resolution, nitrogen depletion from SiN films during ERD analysis can be reduced significantly by using projectile beams with low atomic numbers.Keywords: Heavy ions; Ion beams; Particle detectors; Silicon nitride; Stoichiometry; Elastic recoil detection (ERD); Silicon nitride films; Semiconducting films Elastic recoil detection; Ion beam analysis; Nitrogen depletion200210.1016/S0168-583X(01)01217-42015-12-11