The Determination of Interfacial Structure and Phase Transitions in Al/Cu and Al/Ni Interfaces by Means of Surface Extended X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure

Abstract

ABSTRACTSurface extended x-ray absorption fine structure (SEXAFS) was used to investigate the interfacial conditions of Al/Cu and Al/Ni shallow buried interfaces. Previous studies using glancing angle extended x-ray absorption fine structure, x-ray reflectivity, photoemission, and SEXAFS produced conflicting results as to whether or not the interfaces between Al and Cu and Al and Ni were reacted upon room temperature deposition. In this study polycrystalline bilayers of Al/Cu and Al/Ni and trilayers of Al/Cu/Al and Al/Ni/Al were deposited on tantalum foil at room temperature in ultra high vacuum and analyzed to evaluate the reactivity of these systems on a nanometer scale. It became overwhelming apparent that the interfacial phase reactions were a function of the vacuum conditions. Samples deposited with the optimum vacuum conditions showed reaction products upon deposition at room temperature which were characterized by comparisons to standards and by least squares fitting to be CuAl2 and NiAl3 respectively. The results of this study showed that the reacted zone thicknesses were readily dependent on the deposition parameters. For both Al on Cu and Al on Ni as well as the metal on Al conditions 10A reaction zones were observed. These reaction zones were smaller than that observed for bilayers of Al on Cu (30Å) and Al on Ni (60Å) where deposition rates were much higher and samples were much thicker. The reaction species are evident by SEXAFS, where the previous photoemission studies only indicated that changes had occurred. Improved vacuum conditions as compared to the earlier experiments is primarily the reason reactions on deposition were seen in this study as compared to the earlier SEXAFS studies.