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Detection of small amounts of Fe and Nb in Zr-2.5wt%Nb pressure tubes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

H. Müllejans
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, Seestr. 92, D-70174, Stuttgart, Germany
J. Thomas
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, Seestr. 92, D-70174, Stuttgart, Germany
O. Kienzle
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, Seestr. 92, D-70174, Stuttgart, Germany
M. Griffiths
Affiliation:
AECL Research, Chalk River Laboratories, Chalk River, Ontario, CanadaKOJ 1JO
M. Rühle
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, Seestr. 92, D-70174, Stuttgart, Germany
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Extract

The distribution of Nb and Fe in Zr-2.5wt%Nb pressure tube alloys has been of interest, in particular the effects of neutron irradiation. Both Fe in the β-phase and Nb in the α-phase are present in levels below lwt% and fluctuations of these elements in different parts of a specimen or between different specimens are of interest. In EDS quantification the signal-to-noise ratio and hence the detection limit is determined by the signals but depends also on the data analysis, in particular the background subtraction procedure. Here we compare the noise as given by the commercial analysis software to a simple estimate based on counting statistics. We used a VG HB 501 UX equipped with a thin window HP Ge detector, digital pulse processor and Voyager 3105 data acquisition and analysis system (Noran).In the past artefacts of Fe, Ni and Cu had been observed in EDS spectra, even for materials which did not contain any impurities of these elements.

Type
Analytical Electron Microscopy
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 1997

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References

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2.Griffiths, M. and Müllejans, H., Micron, 26 (1995) 555.10.1016/0968-4328(95)00006-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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4. One of us (HM) acknowledges the financial support of the Volkswagen Stiftung (I/70082).Google Scholar