Ion beam mixing of Ni/Al multilayer structure at different temperatures

Inter‐diffusion effects in as‐deposited Al/Ni polycrystalline multi‐layers

“…When the inner aluminium layers are reached, about 88% of aluminium and 12% of nickel are found, while only about 3% of Al is found in the inner nickel layer. Similar results were found in previous AES sputter depth profile experiments on Ni/Al multi-layers (Rothhaar et al, [16] Zalar et al [15,23] ). However the conclusion on the origin of this effect was somewhat contradictory.…”

Spectroscopic study of interfaces in Al/Ni periodic multilayers

“…In particular, intermixing, alloying process or formation of islands has been shown to occur upon vapordeposition of Al on Ni [6][7][8][9] or Ni on Al [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. General trends are difficult to draw from Al/Ni multilayers deposited by magnetron sputtering studies [17][18][19][20][21][22], but a high chemical reactivity is observed at the interfaces, even at room temperature. This has been recently confirmed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and XES [23].…”

“…These studies indicate that (i) multilayers have to be annealed to form stable intermetallic phases at the interfaces and (ii) even if the first aluminide to form is expected to depend on the average Al/Ni composition, the Al 3 Ni intermetallic compound is shown to be the first crystalline phase to form. Using grazing incidence x-ray scattering [17] or Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) depth profiling [19,21], the investigation of the structure of as-deposited Ni/Al multilayers shows the asymmetry of Ni-on-Al and Al-on-Ni interfaces, the latter being larger.…”

“…However, in spite of this high number of studies and the large variety of analytical methods used to investigate the first stage of thin films reactions in Al/Ni multilayers deposited by magnetron sputtering (X-ray reflectivity [17], AES [19][20][21], secondary ion mass spectroscopy [20] and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry [22]), some points remain unclear. In particular, the interpretation of AES depth profile, showing the presence of Ni in Al layer in as-deposited multilayers [19][20][21], is debatable since the observed effect may directly result from the ion bombardment inherent to this destructive method.…”

“…In particular, the interpretation of AES depth profile, showing the presence of Ni in Al layer in as-deposited multilayers [19][20][21], is debatable since the observed effect may directly result from the ion bombardment inherent to this destructive method.…”