Asymmetric charge transfer with hydrogen ions - An important factor in the 'hydrogen effect' in glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy

摘要

It is now well known that traces of hydrogen or nitrogen in the argon plasma gas in glow discharge optical emission spectrometry (GD-OES) may affect the sputtering rate. More seriously, such traces can also selectively affect the absolute and relative intensities of individual lines, and thereby have a major effect on the accuracy of analytical results. This problem is becoming more severe as the potential of GD-OES as an analytical tool is steadily increasing, and the technique is now used for the analysis of more complex samples.