During the analyses of titanium alloys with the atom probe, a large amount of oxygen and hydrogen was detected essentially at the beginning of the analyses of newly prepared specimen, and the contaminated depth of analysis extending up to 2000 Angstroms.
The results of our study show the existence of two types of titanium hydrides extending on penetration depths varying from a few tens to a few hundreds of Angstroms. It is believed that this hydrogen would come from the electrolyte during the preparation of the samples by electrochemical polishing.
Concerning the presence of oxygen and the problem of recovery with the peaks of copper, the analysis of the results shows that this phenomenon does not change anything as for the analyses and that this oxygen exists in small quantity distributed uniformly in material and we think this oxygen could come from the residual vacuum of the atom probe.
