AGING OF FE-AL THIN-FILM MULTILAYERS

Multilayers constituted by very thin films of Fe and Al, deposited by thermal evaporation and magnetron sputtering techniques and then aged in air at temperatures in the 300-400 K range for times up to 200 h, w ere analyzed by means of XRD, CEMS, XPS and AES measurements. Fe(Al) s olid solutions form during evaporation because of interdiffusion pheno mena at the Fe-Al interfaces, while Al undergoes oxidation during sput tering deposition and, consequently, the multilayers are constituted b y Fe intercalated with Al2O3 films. Aging treatments in oxidizing envi ronments induce no significant modification in sputtered multilayers w hile, on the contrary, the evaporated multilayers show the effects of both interdiffusion and oxidation phenomena.