Surfactant controlled interfacial alloying in thermally evaporated Cu/Co multilayers
- 作者：S.M. Amir ; Mukul Gupta ; mgupta@csr.res.in ; Ajay Gupta
- 关键词：CuCo alloys ; CuCo multilayers ; E-beam evaporation ; X-ray reflectivity
- 刊名：Journal of Alloys and Compounds
- 出版年：2012
- 期刊代码：45_09258388
- 类别：ms
- 出版时间：5 May, 2012
- 卷：522
- 期：Complete
- 页码：9-13
- 文件大小：599 K
摘要
The effect of Ag surfactant on interfacial alloying in nm-range Cu/Co thin film multilayer structures is reported in this work. The multilayer were prepared by electron beam evaporation method with or without using Ag as a surfactant. When multilayers are annealed, the interdiffusion process get suppressed when Ag surfactant is introduced prior to deposition of the multilayer structures. In absence of a surfactant, the asymmetry in the free energy results in formation of a metastable CuCo-alloys. The Ag surfactant balances this difference in the surface free energy, resulting in reduced interdiffusion. The obtained results directly evidence the role of the Ag surfactant in balancing the asymmetry in the surface free energy of Cu and Co in Cu/Co multilayers and thereby controlling interfacial alloying.