Automatic digital data collection for ion scattering depth profiles.

A means for acquiring elemental depth profiles in digital form using ion scattering spectrometry for materials having well resolved binary elastic scattering peaks is described. The integrated counts for each elemental peak or background region are stored in consecutive channels of a multichannel scaler using the system sweep multiplexer to provide the time base necessary to advance the scaler address. A typical depth profile for a copper-chromium bi-layer sample collected in this manner is presented.