Ga‐focused ion beam time‐of‐flight secondary ion mass spectrometer analysis of the grain boundary segregation/precipitation of boron in steel

Ga‐focused ion beam time‐of‐flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (FIB‐TOF‐SIMS) analysis was performed to investigate the grain boundary segregation/precipitation of boron in steel. To overcome the low secondary ion yield from the primary Ga+ source and the sensitivity using a high‐resolution Ga‐FIB source, a low energy oxygen ion beam was used prior to the Ga‐FIB‐TOF‐SIMS analysis. As a result, it was found that Ga‐FIB‐TOF‐SIMS is a very powerful tool for mapping boron segregation and/or precipitation in steel with a spatial resolution of ~200 nm. In addition, the results were strongly dependent on the surface composition.