Glow Discharge Optical Emission Spectroscopy and its Utilization For Elemental Analysis

RNDr. Zdenek Weiss (LECO) Glow Discharge Optical Emission Spectroscopy (GD-OES) is a powerful technique for elemental analysis of metals and alloys, including depth-resolved analysis of coatings, thin films and surface-modified materials. The sensitivity, accuracy and precision achievable by GD-OES in ‘bulk’ analysis (i.e., analysis of materials the composition of which is not changing with depth) matches the performance of the best instrumental methods currently used for this purpose. Depth profiling by GD-OES is possible in a wide range of depths / layer thicknesses, from nanometers to more than 100 μm. Compared to other methods traditionally utilized for depth profiling, GD-OES is robust, cost-effective, fast, quantitative and relatively easy to use. It does not require high vacuum. The principles and a typical experimental setup of GD-OES will be described, an introduction to the GDOES methodology will be presented and some examples of applications to bulk analysis and depth profiling will be given.