Quantitative surface analysis of Al–Mg– Si/ alloys by glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy

A new and practical procedure to determine the apparent emission yield AEY.in the method using the integrated emission intensity IEI.to quantify the depth profile data of glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy GD-OES.was proposed. While in order to determine AEY, the traditional IEI method used ‘standard samples’ in which the composition and thickness are well-defined, the new procedure does not use the standard samples but determines AEY by analyzing the total mass of the elements, W in the surface region of the same samples used in the GD-OES measurements. This procedure n works well as far as a good linear correlation exists between the IEI values and the W ones of the elements. The method n was successfully applied to quantify depth-profile data of the surface oxide layers formed on Al–Mg– Si. alloy sheets during the formation and heat treatment processes. Especially, the profiles of C, S, and H in the layers were successfully quantified for the first time. The new procedure is very practical to quantify the depth-profile data of the surface layers having complex compositions since preparation of good standard samples are very difficult for such cases. q1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved