Effects of a Simultaneous Bombardment with Ions of Low Energy on the Growth and Microstructure of Ag/Ni Multilayers

Abstract

The effect of argon ion bombardment on the structure and properties of nickel and silver films was studied as a function of the energy in a very low energy range 0-300 eV. The effect of ion irradiation on the structure of the nickel films appears very different at high energy (E>100eV) as opposed to 25-75 eV. The microstructure looks to result from an interplay between different mechanisms related to surface and bulk damage varying across the energy range. The first results of a study concerned with the elaboration and characterization of Ag/Ni multilayers (composition modulation = 82 A) deposited under Ar-ion irradiation are reported and compared with those obtained by Ion Beam Sputtering without ion assistance. X-ray diffraction scans show that coherent multilayers are obtained in both cases. The analysis of the profiles shows that the structural intralayer parameters are unchanged. On the other hand, a strong enhancement of the texture under ion irradiation is clearly shown but with a substantial decrease of the coherency length.