Speaker
Description
Scanning Kelvin Probe (SKP) techniques have now been in use for mapping hydrogen in materials for about a decade. Different from techniques such as Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS) or Atom Probe Tomography (APT) they do not measure the hydrogen concentration at a certain site, but rather the local activity. In time-resolved experiments they can provide information about how much hydrogen can be released from a certain trap site and at what rates. However, although many successful applications are reported up to now, still a number of challenges have to be overcome. For instance, quantification requires the use of a suitable detection layer that, however, can be quickly saturated at high activities. Furthermore, especially very small microstructures are often a challenge, as background hydrogen can blanket the local hydrogen. Examples will be presented as well as strategies for how to overcome problems met.
