AES measurements of adsorption isobars for oxygen on tungsten at low pressure and high temperature

Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) has been employed to determine the relative coverage of oxygen on polycrystalline tungsten at high temperatures (1200 ?T ? 2500 K) and low O₂ pressures (5 × 10^?9 ?po₂ ?5 × 10^?6 Torr). We believe that this is the first demonstration that chemical analysis of solid surfaces by AES is possible even at temperatures as high as 2500 K. It is assumed that the relative oxygen coverage is directly proportional to the peak-to-peak amplitude of the first derivative of the 509 eV oxygen Auger peak. The experimental results illustrate the dependence of coverage on temperature and pressure, and it is shown that the results for low coverages may be described reasonably well by a simple first-order desorption model plus a semi-empirical expression for the equilibration probability (or sticking coefficient). On the basis of this approximate model, the binding energy of oxygen on tungsten is estimated as a function of coverage, giving a value of ～ 140 $\text{kcal}\text{mole}$ in the limit of zero coverage.