Analysis of the auger electron line shape to determine the composition of Cu-Ni alloys

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The quantitative analysis of alloys by Auger electron spectroscopy combined with ion beam sputtering becomes difficult when the Auger line shape depends on composition, when individual peaks overlap or when the composition is changed by preferential sputtering during ion bombardment. As an example, it is shown how these difficulties can be managed in the case of CuNi alloys. Variations of the peak shape in the alloy have been found to be a consequence of a linear superposition of the overlapping peaks of the pure elements. Therefore, the composition can be determined by a peak fitting procedure. The peak‐to‐peak amplitudes, on the other hand, are more complicated functions of the composition. It is shown how a concept including several sensitivity factors for the overlapping peaks can be used in order to determine the composition from the peak‐to‐peak amplitudes. The effects of preferential sputtering which produce an altered layer enriched in Ni can be corrected by an empirical sputtering correction factor. From these results the principal shape of the concentration profile within the altered layer has been estimated.