DEPTH PROFILING OF THICK LAYERS OF GRADED METAL ZIRCONIA CERAMIC COATINGS USING LASER-ABLATION INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-ATOMIC EMISSION-SPECTROMETRY

The feasibility of depth profiling of thick layers (>100 mu m) consist ing of partially stabilized zirconia coating and graded metal-ceramic coating on Inconel steel (ZrO2-Y2O3/NiCrAlY/steel and ZrO2-CeO2/NiCrAl Y/steel) was studied on the basis of the use of laser ablation inducti vely coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (LA-ICP-AES). An ICP spectrometer equipped with a multichannel detection was used for the s imultaneous measurements of the line intensities, The ablation was per formed with a Nd:YAG laser operated in a Q-switched mode at 266 nm. To study the erosion rate, we used either a static or a translation mode for the ablation, and the corresponding temporal behavior of the sign als was studied, A higher erosion rate was found for the translation m ode when depths higher than several hundred micrometers were probed.