LOCALIZED DEPTH DISTRIBUTION IN THE BOMBARDED SURFACE OF AG-CU ALLOY

Combined with electron microbeam techniques such as scanning electron microscopy and electron-induced X-ray emission, a helium microbeam is used to study the effect of Ar+ ion bombardment on the surface of a bi nary alloy Ag37CuB63 by particle-induced X-ray emission and Rutherford backscattering. A pronounced change of the surface concentration and depth profile has been found at both Cu-enriched solid solution micro- region and Ag-enriched eutectic mixture micro-region on the alloy surf ace due to ion bombardment, The preferential sputtering of Ag and bomb ardment-induced surface segregation is suggested to be attributed to t he composition change in the near-surface regions, A superposition of depth distributions determined from different micro-phase-regions is e xperimentally confirmed.