Structural investigations of laser-deposited FeAl multilayers

Fe/Al multilayers are prepared by crossed-beam pulsed laser deposition and investigated by Rutherford backscattering, conversion electron Mossbauer sp ectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy, The results are compared to purely ballistic simulations of the deposition process using the TRIDYN4 .0 code. It is found that the intermixing of adjacent layers must be descri bed in terms of ballistic mixing followed by chemical mixing. The phase for mation in the transition layer between adjacent layers follows the nonequil ibrium behavior of Fe/Al in analogy to investigations on mechanically alloy ed and ion-beam-mixed Fe/Al, In Fe-rich areas a bcc solid solution is forme d. In Al-rich environment an amorphous phase is observed.