Abstract
A batch of low alloy reference material for the study of grain boundary segregations of P and Sn has been studied using eight Auger electron spectrometers in six laboratories. The instruments include both cylindrical mirror and concentric hemispherical analysers. Measurements in the differential mode using 5 eV Savitzky and Golay differentiation show that peaks close in energy, such as the ratio of the Sn 430 eV and Fe 651 e V peak-to-peak heights, can be compared directly to demonstrate a reproducibility of 8%. For peaks more widely separated, the scatter of intensity may exceed a factor of 2. However, using reference spectra from the material, all the spectrometers can be calibrated for their intensity/energy response function. After this calibration, the P and Sn peak-to-peak height ratios, with respect to Fe, show scatter of only 15%. In addition to this reduction in scatter, the mean values for the ratios can be corrected by up to a factor of 2. This work shows that the reference materials and methodology are suitable for relating the segregation spectra for P and Sn in low alloy steels from laboratory to laboratory on an absolute and traceable basis.
MST/1684b
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