MODIFYING DIFFUSION ANISOTROPIES - CAP LAYER INDUCED CHANGES IN SPREADING ANISOTROPIES

We have studied the spreading of Fe, Co, and Ni from a dot deposited o nto a W(110) substrate. A Cu cap layer covering dot and surface is fou nd to change the fast spreading directions for all three metals to [10 0]. This is in contrast to the spreading without a cap layer where the East spreading direction is either along [110] in the case of Fe or i nfluenced by the step directions on the substrate surface for Co and N i. The cap layer induced spreading anisotropy is proposed to be caused by the structure in the alloy layer formed during the spreading proce ss. (C) 1997 America Institute of Physics.