Layerwise analysis of vacuum copper-chromium condensates by glow-discharge mass spectrometry

Features are examined of using high-sensitivity mass-spectral layerwise analysis in a glow discharge to examine Cu - Cr composite material made by electron-beam evaporation. A mathematical model is used to calculate the concentrations of molecular ions in the glow-discharge plasma in order to select isotopes free from molecular ions. The argon-ion etching allows one to examine the distributions of the main and impurity elements with a sensitivity of 10(-5)-10(-6)% with micrometer-scale spatial resolution. The distributions of Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, and Ag in the layers have been examined to determine the effects of the trace impurities on the condensation of the atomic vapor.