Lithium wetting of stainless steel studied via scanning auger microscopy

Author

Skinner, C.H. ; Capece, A.M. ; Koel, B.E. ; Roszell, J.P.

Author_Institution

Princeton Plasma Phys. Lab., Princeton, NJ, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

25-29 May 2014

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

1

Abstract

We are applying a Scanning Auger Microprobe (SAM) to study the growth of lithium films on stainless steel substrates. A small (mm-scale) amount of metallic lithium is applied to a stainless steel surface in a oxygen-free glove box and transferred to the antechamber of the SAM. Native impurities on the stainless steel and lithium surfaces are removed by Ar+ ion sputtering with the SAM ion beam and the surface composition measured by spatially resolved AES. After etching with the ion beam, the AES spectrum from stainless steel adjacent to the lithium showed the Li 50 eV AES line, indicating that surface diffusion of lithium onto the etched stainless steel surface had taken place at room temperature (i.e. well below the 181°C Li melting temperature). The speed of Li spreading on stainless steel under various surface conditions will be reported.

Keywords

Auger electron spectra; etching; ion beam effects; lithium; metallic thin films; scanning electron microscopy; sputtering; stainless steel; surface diffusion; wetting; AES; Li; SAM ion beam; antechamber; etching; ion sputtering; lithium surface; lithium wetting; metallic lithium films; oxygen-free glove box; scanning Auger microscopy; stainless steel substrate; surface composition; surface diffusion; temperature 293 K to 298 K; Ion beams; Lithium; Magnetic liquids; Plasmas; Steel; Surface treatment;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Plasma Sciences (ICOPS) held with 2014 IEEE International Conference on High-Power Particle Beams (BEAMS), 2014 IEEE 41st International Conference on

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-2711-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PLASMA.2014.7012377

Filename

7012377