Preferential sputtering of brass studied by AES and XPS

1 April 1984

journal article
Published by American Vacuum Society in Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A

Vol. 2 (2) , 1132-1134
https://doi.org/10.1116/1.572688

Abstract

Preferential sputtering of brass has been investigated for inert gas ion bombardment having incident ion energies between 500 and 4000 eV. Enrichment of the copper on surfaces sputtered to equilibrium was found for all conditions, and was observed to increase with ion energy and mass. Copper concentrations calculated by using Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) peak-to-peak heights in the E dN/dE mode varied from 8% to 13% above bulk composition. This variation was found to be reversible upon changing the incident ion energy and sputtering away the existing damaged layer. Analysis by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) using 2p and 3p peak areas and escape depths showed the existence of a subsurface region with greater enrichment of copper than that produced on the sputtered surface.

Keywords

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: