Observation of surface segregation of sulphur in CuNi alloys at elevated temperature with scanning Auger electron microscope

Abstract

Surface segregations of Cu and S in a CuNi (50wt%) alloy at elevated temperatures of ∼600°C were studied under scanning Auger electron microscope, JAMP-3. Scanning images of S, Cu and Ni Auger signals have revealed that the surface segregations of both Cu and S take place preferentially depending on grains and the contrasts in S and Cu Auger images are complementary. This leads to another confirmation of the previous work, namely, that the surface segregation of Cu is considerably suppressed by the existence of S at the outermost atom layer.