Ion-beam induced atomic transport at the Sb/Ni interface

Abstract

Ion-beam mixing at the Sb/Ni interface was investigated with a wide range of ions (He, Ne, Ar, Xe, Pb) and beam energies (40–900 keV). The irradiations were carried out at 77 and 300 K on Sb/Ni bilayers and on Ni and Sb marker layers embedded in Sb and Ni, respectively. Atomic intermixing was determined by means of Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. The bilayer mixing rates were extracted from the concentration profiles at the interface observed after low-dose irradiations (≤20 dpa). A nearly linear dependence of the low temperature mixing rates on the damage energy F D deposited at the interface was found for the He, Ne, Ar and Xe irradiations. This points to a local rather than a global thermal spike mixing mechanism. After Pb-irradiation an enhanced mixing efficiency was observed, possibly indicating the transition from local to global spike formation. At 300 K, radiation-enhanced diffusion contributes to the mixing process.