Highly sensitive detection of net hydrogen charged into austenitic stainless steel with secondary ion mass spectrometry.

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is used to detect local distributions of hydrogen in various materials. However, it has been well-known that it is extremely difficult to analyze net hydrogen (HN) in metals with SIMS. This was because hydrogen, which is originated from moisture (H2O), hydrocarbon (CxHy) or other organic materials (CxHyOz) existing on a sample surface or in the SIMS chamber, is simultaneously detected in the SIMS measurement of the HN, and the HN and the background-originated hydrogen (HBG) cannot be distinguished in a SIMS profile. The effective method for reductions and determinations of the HBG in hydrogen measurements of metallic materials with the SIMS method has not been established. The present paper shows an effective method for reduction and estimation of HBG in SIMS analyses of hydrogen charged into type 316 L austenitic stainless steel, and an accurate estimation method of the net charged hydrogen. In this research, a silicon wafer is sputtered by a primary ion beam of a S...