Surface roughening of boron delta-doped Si samples under low energy (0.5 keV/O-2(+), 44 degrees and 54 degrees, and 1.0 keV/O-2(+), 48 degrees) O-2(+) bombardment at oblique incidence with and without oxygen flooding was studied with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The erosion rate, the surface topography and the depth resolution as a function of depth have been measured. Changes in secondary ion yields have been correlated with changes in surface topography. It is found that the surface roughness depends on impact energy and incidence angle without flooding. The roughness decreases with decreasing impact energy. For the same energy (0.5 keV/O-2(+)), the wavelength increases slightly with increasing angle of incidence and the roughness increases with increasing angle of incidence. With flooding, the roughness can be efficiently avoided. The best conditions to avoid roughness when analysing ultra shallow profiles with our magnetic sector instrument is 0.5 keV/O-2(+), 44 degrees with flooding. A procedure for the depth calibration of the profiles revealed that surface roughness causes an erosion rate change as measured using the shift of the position of the measured B peaks with and without flooding. The consequences of the roughness in terms of depth resolution of the profiles are analysed with and without flooding. Moreover, we show that the value of the Gaussian broadening parameter of the depth resolution function is closely related to the final dispersion of the heights in the crater bottom. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.