Paper PS-TuP26
Advances in the Spectroscopic Characterization of Ceramic Films and Coatings

Tuesday, October 23, 2018, 6:30 pm, Room Hall B

A variety of radio frequency (RF) plasma source atomic optical emission spectroscopy and atomic mass spectrometry have been developed and implemented in our laboratory to characterize various solid ceramic materials, thick coatings and metal-oxide thin films. The techniques that we have developed include but are not limited to glow discharge OES, ICP-OES, laser ablation ICP-MS. Utilizing advanced RF plasma or a high energy laser beam for material sputtering, excitation or ionization, many intrinsic limitations associated with Auger, EDS, GD-MS, RBS, and SIMS techniques such as surface charging are eliminated. The signal intensities produced by these advanced techniques all have a simple and well-defined mathematical (linear) relationship with elemental concentrations in the material. A wide linear dynamic range (over seven orders of magnitude) in these techniques coupled with traceable NIST material standards developed in our laboratory have made accurate surface, interfacial and bulk analyses possible. The advances have also led to a much higher sensitivity in impurity analysis and a much higher accuracy in compositional verification. In addition, deep depth profiling a > 50 µm hard and thick ceramic coating (e.g. Type III anodized coatings) throughout its entire thickness in a real-time fashion can now be accomplished.