TY - CONF A1 - Pisonero, J. A1 - Fandiño, J. A1 - Señorans, M. A1 - Halvor, J. A1 - Pfeifer, Jens A1 - Hofmann, T. A1 - Smid, P. A1 - Venzago, C. A1 - Richter, Silke A1 - Jakubowski, Norbert A1 - Sanz-Medel, A. A1 - Bordel, N. T1 - Fast elemental depth profile analysis of nano and micro layers with high sensitivity using pulsed glow discharge mass spectrometry N2 - Innovative material with outstanding physical and chemical properties are produced upon the deposition of thin and ultrathin coatings on different substrates. For instance, hard disks able to store Tera-bytes of information are based on the deposition of multiple nano-layers, which include magnetic and non-magnetic layers. Many other analogous examples, including photovoltaic cells, coated Al substrates, oxidized thin film composite membranes, coated glasses, coated polymers, etc. could be cited. The physical performance of these emerging materials is directly related to their chemical properties, including the elemental distribution within the different layers and at the layer-interfaces, or the presence of critical non-desired trace elements. Therefore, quality control and R+D advances require the development of direct solid analytical techniques able to provide fast multi-elemental chemical analysis of these materials, with high depth resolution (to monitor the different layers) and high sensitivity (to detect major, minor and trace elements). Atomic spectrometry techniques have long been used for direct elemental chemical characterization. Techniques, such as Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry or Auger Electron Spectroscopy provide very valuable information about the chemical composition of the surfaces/coatings; however, they also have some major drawbacks, such as high operating costs, complex sample pre-treatment and handling, low sample throughput and/or severe matrix effects that result in difficult quantification procedures. To overcome some of these drawbacks Glow Discharge Mass Spectroscopy is proposed as a complementary methodology that provides an ideal solution for fast and accurate bulk and layer analyses. In this work, we evaluate the advantages and limitations of this technique and we discuss about recent progresses and new applications. T2 - JAI Conference , 15th Instrumental Analysis Conference CY - Barcelona, Spain DA - 03.10.2017 KW - GDMS KW - Pulsed KW - Depth profile PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-46226 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -