Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1980 Surface self-diffusion of vanadium Jick Ming Yu Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Metallurgy Commons Recommended Citation Yu, Jick Ming, "Surface self-diffusion of vanadium " (1980). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 6776. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/6776 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This was produced from a copy of a document sent to us for microfilming. 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ZEEB ROAD, ANN ARBOR, Ml 48106 18 BEDFORD ROW, LONDON WCl R 4EJ, ENGLAND 8019678 Yu, JicK MING SURFACE SELF-DIFFUSION OF VANADIUM lov/a State University PH.D. 1980 University Microfilms Intern&t ion&l 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 18 Bedford Row, London WCIR 4EJ. England Surface self-diffusion of vanadium by Jick Ming Yu A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department: Materials Science and Engineering Major: Metallurgy Approved : Signature was redacted for privacy. In charge of Major Work Signature was redacted for privacy. For the Major Department Signature was redacted for privacy. For the Graduatp College Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1980 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. REVIEW OF EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES 5 A. Radioactive Tracer 6 B. Field Emission Microscope (FEM) 6 C. Field Ion Microscope (FIM) 9 D. Mass Transfer Techniques 11 III. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE AND RESULTS 20 A. Experimental Procedure 20 1. Specimen preparation 20 2. Creation of periodic profile 26 3. Annealing of specimen 31 4. Monitoring of surface profile 36 B. Experimental Results 42 1. Initial experiments 44 a. Single scratch decay technique 44 b. Decay characteristics of periodic surface profile on low index surfaces 46 2. Surface self-diffusion on the (111) surface 49 3. Exploratory experiments 61 a. Effect of temperature gradient 61 b. Decay of sinusoidal profile on a high index plane 63 IV. DISCUSSION 65 A. Surface Energy Calculation 65 B. Terrace-Ledge-Kink Model for Surface Diffusion 69 C. Coefficients of Surface Self-diffusion of Refractory Metals 88 V. CONCLUSIONS 97 VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY 98 VII, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 103 1 I. INTRODUCTION A surface is the region which divides two different phases, e.g., solid-vapor. Since the atoms on a surface are in a very different environment when compared to those in the bulk of the material, the properties of surface atoms are expected to differ significantly from the properties of bulk atoms. The transition from surface to bulk properties occurs within only a few atomic layers, so that surface effects are generally negligible as far as the average properties of an entire crystal are concerned. However, as technology advances, particularly in this age of miniaturization, many industrial products are getting smaller, creating a relatively high surface to volume ratio. Consequently, the surface effects become pronounced and in some cases, even dominant. In fact, many phenomena of current technological interest, such as catalysis, corrosion and thin film growth, are controlled by the surface configuration and properties. From the scientific viewpoint, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of pure materials. These characteristics are atomic configurations and energy of surfaces, interaction of surface atoms with neighboring atoms and the migration of atoms on the surfaces. The surface structures of many metals have been studied by the loi? energy electron diffraction (LEED) technique (1, 2). Inmost cases, the atomic configurations correspond to the extension of the bulk structures. However, the spacings between the first few layers of atoms on the surface are somevdaat different from those in the bulk, so that there is 2 a change in atomic interactions when surface atoms become involved (3). Approximate theoretical models have been derived and calculations carried out to estimate these interactions (4, 5). Direct experimental measurements, however, are rather difficult. An indirect technique that has been used is to study the motion of atoms on a surface, i.e., surface self-diffusion studies, to determine the free energy of formation and the migration energy of the diffusing species. The atomic arrangement on a surface changes with orientation, so that the interactions among surface atoms can be expected to vary with surface orientation. Thus, by measuring the rate of surface self- diffusion of a material on different surfaces and in different diffusion directions under similar experimental conditions, it is possible to eliminate many experimental variables. Any measured differences in surface diffusion coefficients can, therefore, be attributed to the different atomic arrangements. From these relationships one can obtain valuable information about the interaction between the migratory atoms and the crystalline body. In addition, surface diffusion measurements also give the surface diffusion coefficient, which is valuable in studying processes such as sintering, crystal growth, void migration, epitaxial film growth and nucleation. Several techniques have been developed to determine the surface diffusion coefficient. These techniques are based on the following concepts: (1) direct observation of the displacement of adatoms by the Field Ion Microscope techniques. 3 (2) migration of a radioactive tracer on solid surfaces, and (3) measurement of changes in surface topography due to the motion of surface atoms. A significant amount of work has been done on surface self-diffusion of face-centered cubic (fee) metals, showing good correlation among the experimental data from those metals. The theoretical model, based on the energetics of adsorbed atoms, is available (6). On the other hand, our knowledge of high temperature surface self-diffusion of body-centered cubic (bcc) metals is very limited. The bcc metals in groups V A and VI A of the periodic chart (V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo and W) have very high melting points. With the current demand for high temperature materials, there is a growing interest in the properties of these refractory metals. It is believed that, as in the case of fee metals, there should be a general correlation among the surface self-diffusion coefficients of bcc metals. Furthermore, because of the directional binding characteristic of bcc metals, it seems likely that surface self-diffusion will show significant anisotropy. A considerable amount of experimental work has been done on the surface self-diffusion of tungsten. The majority of these experiments have been carried out using field emission microscope (FEM) techniques which cover a wide range of surface orientations. A limited number of experimental results are also available for other refractory metals, except vanadium. Vanadium has good corrosion resistance to both acids and alkalis, is ductile, has good structural strength and has a low neutron absorption cross-section (7); thus, vanadium is a potential 4 refractory material for future energy production systems. Therefore, it will be valuable to fill the gap in experimental data from both scientific and application viewpoints. This research has two major goals. The first is to carry out surface self-diffusion measurements on vanadium so that the results can be compared with those of other refractory metals. From the comparison, the common behavior of surface self-diffusion of refractory metals can be analyzed. The second goal is to study surface self-diffusion as a function of surface orientation and diffusion direction. This will provide information about interaction involving surface atoms. 5 II. REVIEW OF EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES Surface diffusion is the migration of atoms or clusters of atoms on solid surfaces. It was first discussed by Volmer (8). In his crystal growth experiment, he observed that the crystal grew faster in certain directions and this rapid growth could not be explained by the rate of deposition and volume diffusion.