An AES investigation of high temperature annealing of TaHf and WHf alloy surface composition

Abstract

The dynamics of the variation in Auger spectra for Ta, Hf and W, Hf have been investigated under similar conditions on the TaHf and WHf alloys respectively. For the TaHf alloy the intensity of the Hf Auger peak increases initially with time and then stabilizes whilst for Ta the Auger peak intensity was considerably decreased. For the WHf alloy Hf Auger peak intensity monotonically increases with time while for W the Auger intensity monotonically decreases. Thus we deduce that in the absence of marked impurity concentrations Hf atoms form homogeneous two-dimensional film on the TaHf alloy surface whilst there is island formation the WHf alloy surface.