UNIFORMITY AND INTERFACES IN ION-BEAM DEPOSITED AL NI MULTILAYERS/

The uniformity and reaction kinetics of ion-beam deposited Al/Ni multi layer samples with the same composition, Al81.8Ni18.2, and modulation wavelength, Lambda = 20 nm, but with different total film thicknesses were investigated by x-ray diffraction and differential scanning calor imetry measurements. The total film thicknesses varied between approxi mately 0.5 and 2.0 mu m It was found that the interface widths were ap proximately 1 nm and the Ni layers are much more disordered than the A l layers. The thicker samples show an increase in disorder on a length scale comparable to Lambda. In other experiments, a change was observ ed with increasing modulation wavelength from semicoherent interfaces with a low density of misfit dislocations to semicoherent interfaces w ith a high density of misfit dislocations. The reaction kinetics for f orming the Al9Ni2 phase is independent of the sample thickness.