AN FIM STUDY ON THE INITIAL STAGE OF THE SURFACE REACTION OF TUNGSTEN WITH n-OCTANOL UNDER AN APPLIED DC VOLTAGE

Abstract
The surface reaction of tungsten with n-octanol under a pulse with a height of about +10V, a risetime of 10nsec, and a width of several seconds, which gives rise to interesting FI images of the central (110) plane split into two parts across the [001] zone line or into more than two parts, has been studied in order to reveal the reaction process from the initial stage to the final splitting by 1) decreasing the pulse width to shorten the reaction time and by 2) adding benzene to n-octanol to mitigate the activity of the latter. In the initial stage no damage was observed on the (110) plane but small shallow basins were observed near <131> poles. As the reaction proceeded, they became larger and extended toward the center of the (110) plane. It has been concluded that the reaction starts in areas around <131> poles and proceeds to widen the corroded areas and finally links them on the (110) plane to split it.