Amorphous Alloys Atomic Structure Investigation by Means of Electron Microscopy and Diffraction

Abstract

In the paper, the atomic structure of amorphous and nanocrystalline alloys of the electrolytically obtained CoP, NiP, CoNiP, CoW, and CoNiW systems has been studied. The structure was investigated by electron microscopy and diffraction using a Libra 200 HR FE transmission electron microscope at an accelerating voltage of 200 kV within a temperature range of 50-35 °C. The obtained radial atom distribution function and the coordination sphere radii are in good agreement with the data for the cobalt structure in the cubic and hexagonal modifications. The high coordination numbers of the third and fourth coordination spheres allow suggesting a predominantly cubic structure of the local atom environment in CoP samples but somewhat lower, which is explained by the presence of free volume and phosphorus atoms distorting the local structure. When heating, the near atomic order also corresponds to the cubic phase of cobalt, and the ordering occurs in the second, third, and fourth coordination spheres. The data obtained for CoNiP alloys indicate that by configuration, the local atomic environment is closer to the hexagonal structure of nickel. In general, the structure of the CoP-CoNiP system alloy films obtained by electrolytic deposition is already in one of the local minima of the total system energy, which is confirmed by the near atomic order similar to the cubic phase of cobalt or hexagonal phase of nickel. This determines the good stability of the structure and properties during thermal exposure.