Spectroscopic characterization of the surface nanostructure of Ti during deposition on polycrystalline aluminium

Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (WS), a ngle-resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ARXPS), ion scattering spec troscopy (ISS) and factor analysis (FA) have been used to study the deposit ion of titanium on polycrystalline aluminium at room temperature. Analysis of AES and XPS spectra suggests the formation of a titanium aluminide alloy during the first steps of deposition, Application of FA to the low-energy Auger electron spectra allows the identification of three principal factors that can be attributed to metallic aluminium, metallic titanium and titani um aluminide, respectively. The ARXPS measurements are consistent with a tw o-stage mechanism for titanium growth: a first stage characterized by the f ormation of a uniform layer similar to 4 ML thick of an intermetallic compo und TiAlx (x = 1.5), followed by the formation of metallic titanium islands with an average thickness of 10 ML that grow over the TiAlx layer formed p reviously. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.