2016 Volume 37 Issue 8 Pages 359-362
Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) was used to determine the concentration of W atoms diffused into a Co region across a WC/Co interface in a tungsten carbide tool. Direct analysis near the WC/Co interface by AES is difficult because of backscattering. We propose a practical method that considers backscattering in estimating the W concentration across the interface. We prepared a WC/Co model specimen with negligible diffusion of W into the Co region. We confirmed that the backscattering component in AES line profiles across the interface was reproduced by using a Monte Carlo (MC) code. Then, we measured AES line profiles over a WC/Co/WC region in a real tungsten carbide tool and calculated profiles without W diffusion into the Co region by the MC code. We estimated the W distribution in the Co region by considering backscattering, and subtracted the calculated profile from the measured profile to remove the backscattering component.
