Application of ESCA in Composite Systems

The principal theme of this section is concerned with the involvement of ESCA or XPS in various metal matrix-based composite systems. This section will be devoted to boron-, nitrogen-, aluminum-, and titanium-based composite systems and some of the ESCA results have been published elsewhere by the authors. 

Reprinted with permission from S. Seal, T. L. Barr, N. Sobczak, and E. Benko, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A15,505, Copyright (1997), American Vacuum Society. 

The fraction of N with nonstoichiometric bonds with Ti may be one of the principal factors for determining film quality. It was shown that coatings with the 

3 Detection of Contamination. In all of the currently described coated samples (Table V), a slight surface presence of silicon in the form of Si—O, Si—C, and SiaNa was suggested by a multifaceted Si (2p) spectra. The presence of this silicon apparently occurred during the heat treatment of these samples in quartz tubes, indicating that Si may migrate from the tube to the sample surface. 

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