A VALENCE AUGER ANALYSIS ACROSS THE INTERFACES BETWEEN NITRIDE CERAMICS AND DEPOSITED METALS

Specimens of Cr/AIN, Ti/AIN, Ag/AIN, Cr/Si3N4 and Ti/Si3N4 interfaces were prepared by electron beam deposition. Auger spectra of as-deposit ed and annealed samples were obtained at their interfaces using JEOL J AMP10s. The overlapping spectra were separated by a subtraction techni que. The subtraction was available for these systems. A change in Auge r line shapes across the interface was observed and the interfaces wer e classified into two types: type A, the defect peak in the LVV Auger transition is constant across the interfaces and type B, the peak incr eases as the metal peak increases at the interface. The interfaces of Cr/AIN, Ag/AIN and Cr/Si3N4 belong to type A. The interfaces of Ti/AIN and Ti/Si3N4 belong to type B. AES results suggest that the substrate is reduced by the deposited metal at the Ti/AIN and Ti/Si3N4 interfac es. This is supported by thermochemical data. It is suggested that the valence Auger analysis is applicable to the metal/ceramic systems as an evaluation method if the electronic dose is kept constant across th e interface.