A Review of Diffusion and Interfacial Reactions in Sandwich Thin-Film Couples

Abstract

In this paper different techniques for sandwich thin film production, characterization and interfacial reactions have been reviewed in order to understand the kinetic behaviour in the above systems. The contact and composite resistance measurements are the indirect methods for this purpose, while X-ray diffraction studies (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Rutherford backscattering (RBS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), ion sputtering spectrometry (ISS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) which is also referred to as electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) are some of the direct methods. Trends indicate that interfacial reactions start at room temperature.