Effect of discharge parameters on emission yields in a radio-frequency glow-discharge atomic-emission source

A study is performed on a radio-frequency glow-discharge atomic-emission (rf-GD-AES) source to determine the factors effecting the emission yields for both metallic and nonconductive sample types. Specifically, these studies focus on determining how the operating parameters (power and pressure) influence emission yields. The results follow predicted patterns as determined by Langmuir probe diagnostic studies of a similar source. In particular, discharge gas pressure is the key operating parameter as slight changes in pressure may significantly affect the emission yield of the analyte species. RF power is less important and is shown to produce only relatively small changes in the emission yield over the ranges typically used in rf-GD analyses. These studies indicate that the quantitative analysis of layered materials, depth-profiling, may be adversely affected if the data collection scheme, i.e. the quantitative algorithm, requires changing the pressure during an analysis to keep the operating current and voltage constant. A direct relationship is shown to exist between the Ar (discharge gas) emission intensity and that of sputtered species for nonconductors. This observance is used to compensate for differences in emission intensities observed in the analysis of various thickness nonconductive samples. The sputtered element emission signals are corrected based on the emission intensity of an Ar (1) transition, implying that quantitative analysis of nonconductive samples is not severely limited by the availability of matrix matched standards. © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.