Preparation and characterization of epitaxial films of silver, palladium and Ag-Pd alloys deposited by glow discharge sputtering I: Onto NaCl single-crystal substrates

Abstract

The experimental conditions to condense epitaxial films of silver, palladium and Ag-Pd alloys onto (100) air-cleaved rocksalt faces by glow discharge sputtering are described. The orientation (100) d‖(100) s (where d indicates deposit and s substrate) is observed for all the systems studied. A simple experiment demonstrates that by simultaneous sputtering of silver and palladium we obtain an effective monophasic alloy. The films are characterized by transmission and reflection high energy electron diffraction, selected area diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy and grazing angle X-ray diffraction. The relative concentrations of silver and palladium in the alloy films can be determined by grazing angle X-ray diffraction with good accuracy.