In an attempt to bridge the pressure gap, APXPS was used to follow the surface development of an aluminum brazing sheet during heating in an ambient oxygen-pressure mimicking the environment of an industrial brazing furnace. The studied aluminum alloy brazing sheet is a composite material consisting of two aluminum alloy standards whose surface is covered with a native aluminum oxide film. To emphasize the necessity of studies of this system in ambient sample environments it is compared to

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... rements in UHV. Changes in thickness and composition of the surface oxide were followed after heating to 300 • C, 400 • C, and 500 • C. The two sets presented in this paper show that the surface development strongly depends on the environment the sample is heated in.