Title: crater depth
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - crater depth
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.09240
Status: current

Definition
Average depth of the region of a crater from which the measured signal is derived.

Notes
1) The crater is generally formed by ion bombardment in sputter depth profiling and, in this case, can be different from the thickness of sample material removed by sputtering due to dilation of the altered layer.
2) The crater depth can be modified by the formation of a reacted layer (e.g. an oxide) following any exposure to the atmosphere or other environments necessary when conducting the crater depth measurement.

Related Term
- depth profiling: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/09244

Source
- PAC, 2020, 92, 1781. 'Glossary of methods and terms used in surface chemical analysis (IUPAC Recommendations 2020)' on page 1801 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0404)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09240/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09240/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09240/xml

Citation: Citation: 'crater depth' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.09240
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Accessed: 2026-08-09T10:53:12+00:00