HETEROGENEOUS ELEMENT DISTRIBUTION - A CONTRIBUTION TO QUANTITATIVE GDOS DEPTH ANALYSIS

The apparent enrichment of Cu, Mg, Mn and Si on the surface of Al cast -alloys, as observed by means of glow discharge optical emission spect rometry (GDOS), could be attributed to the heterogeneous distribution of the alloying elements. The samples under investigation were spectro chemical standards and hence assumed to be homogeneous. Different meta llurgical phases were identified which induced selective sputtering. T he findings point out that quantitative results obtained by GDOS in-de pth analysis can be misleading and should be confirmed by other techni ques such as Auger Electron Spectrometry and Energy Dispersive X-ray S pectrometry, which are free from sputter effects.