PHASE CHARACTERIZATION OF ION-BEAM-MIXED AND THERMALLY REACTED FE/PD THIN-FILM BILAYERS

The structure of mixed layers resulting from thermal treatments or Kr ion bombardment and post-thermal annealings of thin film Fe/Pd bilayers has been investigated using X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Ion mixing experiments were performed using 200 keV Kr2+ ions at a dose of 2.5 × 1016 cm-2. Thermal treatments were carried on in flux of formings gas at 350 and 550°C. In the ion-mixed samples the dominant phase is FePd3 and the part of the iron film which is not mixed with palladium is heavily structurally modified. Annealings induce compositional changes both in as-deposited and ion-mixed samples: at the highest temperature we detected the formation of the FePd compound in the as-deposited sample, while the composition of the ion-mixed sample moves towards the same phase but without reaching it yet. © 1990