Compositional Auger profiling of hard coatings utilizing a ball wear scar technique

Abstract

Understanding the structure of chemisorbed species on single crystal surfaces is of fundamental importance to conceptual developments in surface chemistry. ESDIAD (electron stimulated desorption ion angular distribution) can give direct information about bond directionality in surface species. Here, chemical bonds are broken by electron impact, and the positive ion fragments escape along the original bond direction. In this work, an enhanced version of ESDIAD is employed in which digital imaging methods are used, and background effects are eliminated. The application of ESDIAD to several important surface problems involving the dynamical behavior of adsorbed species will be presented.