Analysis of shallow depth profiles of titanium nitride and N-implanted titanium by GD-OES: the 'hydrogen effect' after the discharge startup and a correction thereof

Disturbing effects, affecting depth profile analysis by GD-OES of the near-surface layers of Ti-N matrices, are described and attributed to the desorption of atmospheric gases including moisture from the inner surfaces of the glow discharge source. These effects are viewed as a perturbation, affecting sample atomization and excitation of analyte species. A formalism is proposed to correct for this perturbation when evaluating experimental data. The emission intensity of the hydrogen line at 121.567 nm is used as a variable expressing the magnitude of the perturbation. The modified quantification procedure is applied in the analysis of a series of titanium samples implanted with nitrogen. A method is presented for the correction of the GD-OES depth profiles of N-implanted titanium, perturbed by the hydrogen effect on the discharge startup.