Chemical Analysis

A Certificate of Analysis is supplied as standard with all ordered materials. X-ray diffraction and spectrographic analyses are carried out for each element and compound. For non-metallic impurities, such as Oxygen, data is available upon request.

The following types of analyses can be performed at extra cost as a complimentary service to our thin film product range:

Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectroscopy (ICP)

Most suited for determining ratios of the bulk materials in an alloy.

ICP is a bulk quantitative analysis method for major and trace elements with high accuracy of determination in a wide range of samples.

Relevant Items for ICP Analysis:

• High purity materials
• Sputtering Targets
• Metal alloys

Advantages: 

• Up to 70 elements can be simultaneously determined.

Disadvantages:

• The sample has to be dissolved in acid so the analysis can be undertaken on a liquid sample.
• Common matrix elements can interfere with the determination of some elements.

Glow-Discharge Mass Spectrometry (GDMS)

Most suited for determining the metallic impurities

GDMS is a sensitive and flexible analysis for a wide variety of sample forms. The analysis is designed for determining bulk element compositions as well as for collecting depth profiling information with very high sensitivity. This technique effectively destroys the sample and is thus a true bulk analysis of the material. Because of the sensitivity it is really only suitable for looking at contaminants and trace elements.

Relevant Items for GDMS Analysis: Sputtering Targets:

• Metals including refractory metals and alloys
• High purity materials
• Rare earth metals and their oxides
• Precious Metals

Advantages:

• Depth profiling of coatings and oxide layers
• Covers full periodic table excluding Hydrogen
• Sub-ppb detection

Disadvantages:

• It cannot detect H, C, N, O2