Does the thermal spike affect low-energy ion-induced interfacial mixing

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arXiv:cond-mat/0302262v3 [cond-mat.mtrl-sci] 9 Oct 2003Doesthethermal-spikeaffectlow-energyion-inducedinterfacialmixing?

P.S¨ule,M.Menyh´ard,K.Nordlund

ResearchInstituteforTechnicalPhysicsandMaterialScience,

KonkolyThegeu.29-33,Budapest,Hungary,sule@mfa.kfki.huAcceleratorLab.,Helsinki,Finland(February2,2008)

Moleculardynamicssimulationshavebeenusedtoobtainthethree-dimensionaldistributionofinterfacialmixingandcascadedefectsinTi/Ptmultilayersystemduetosingle1keVAr+impactatgrazingangleofincidence.TheTi/Ptsystemwaschosenbecauseofitsrelativelyhighheat

ofmixinginthebinaryalloyandthereforeasuitablecandidatefortestingtheeffectofheatofmixingonion-beammixing.However,thecalculatedmixingprofileisnotsensitivetotheheatofmixing.Thereforethethermalspikemodelofmixingisnotfullysupportedundertheseirradiationconditions.Insteadwefoundthatthemajorityofmixingoccursafterthethermalspikeduringthe

relaxationprocess.Theseconclusionsaresupportedbyliquid,vacancyaswellasadatomanalysis.Theinterfacialmixingisinvariousaspectsanomalousinthissystem:thetimeevolutionofmixingisleadingtoaphasedelayforTimixing,andPtexhibitsanunexpecteddoublepeakedmixing

evolution.Thereasonstotheseeffectsarediscussed.PACSnumbers:61.82.Bg,79.20.Rf,81.40.Wx

I.INTRODUCTION

Withtheappearanceofnanotechnologytheimpor-

tanceofthinfilmsincreasedconsiderably.Eitherduring

makingthinfilmsbyanykindofvarioussputteringpro-

cessesorinthinfilmanalysis(variouskindsofsputter

depthprofilingtechniques)thethinfilmsystemissub-

jectedtolowenergyionbombardment.Forthisreason

thestudyoftheeffectsofthelowenergyionirradiation

ofthinfilmstructuresisofhighimportance.

Oneoftheeffectsofionbombardmentisinterfacialion

beammixing.Thistermisusedforthatprocesswhen

anoriginallysharpinterface(IF)betweenpureAand

Bmaterialsgetsbroaderduetoionbombardment.The

ionmixing(IM)phenomenonisknownforalongtime

[1].Themajorityofourknowledgereferstocaseswhen

theinterfacetobemixedisrelativelydeepinthematrix

(thatis,farfromthefreesurface)andconsequentlythe

ionenergyappliedisintherangeof100keV[2].

Severaltheoreticalapproachesandtechniqueshave

alsobeendevelopedandarathercoherentpictureseems

tohaveemerged[1,2].Thoughthereisnoprincipaldiffer-

encebetweenthelowandhighenergyionmixingstillthe

previousexperimentalandtheoreticaltechniquescannot

bedirectlyappliedforthelowenergycase.Themostim-

portantdifferencebetweenthehighandlowenergyion

mixingisthat(i)thelatteroccursclosetothefreesur-

faceand(ii)itsextentisobviouslymuchlessthanthat

ofhighenergymixing.

WiththeincreasingcomputationspeedMDsimula-

tionshavebecomeastandardtooltostudythelowen-

ergyionbeamsurfaceinteraction,andinterfacemixing

aswell.MDsimulationofIMhasbeenthesubjectof

severalstudiesinthelastdecades[1].IMinmultilayer

systemhasalsobeeninvestigatedbyseveralgroupsusing

MD[1,4,6,7].Acommonfeatureofthesestudiesisthat

onlyasingleionimpacthasbeenconsideredduringthesimulations.Experimentalanalysisofinterfacialmixing

inmultilayermetals,however,alwaysdealwithaseriesof

ionimpacts.Forinstance,Augerdepthprofilinganalysis

ofmultilayersshouldleadtotheremovalofthetarget

duringanalysis[9].Asafirststep,weinthisstudyfocus

onunderstandingthesingle-ionprocess.Togobeyond

thislevelwewillemployaseriesofionimpactsinthe

nextstudy.

Theothercommonfeatureofthestudiesavailableis

thattheyuseanormalangleofincidence.Weshould

liketomodelionmillinganddestructivedepthprofiling

techniques[9].Basedonexperimentalevidencesweknow

thatfortheoptimumapplicationofthesemethodsone

shouldapplylowenergyionbombardmentwithgrazing

angleofincidence(tominimizethesurfacemorphology

development).Thisarrangement,however,isfarfrom

thepreviousone.First,theangleofincidenceisgrazing

incontrasttonormalangleofincidence.Second,Pinzon

etal.[8]recentlyshowedbyMDcalculationthatthe

damagestructurechangeswithangleofincidence.At

grazingangleofincidenceionbombardmentthedefects

areconfinedclosetothesurface.

Anotherinterestingaspectofion-beammixingisthe-

oretical.Itisstillunclearwhetherthemechanismof

IMispurelyballisticorheatspikesplayessentialrole

inthemagnitudeofinterfacialmixing[1,2].Inparticu-

larwithinthethermalspike(TS)model[2]theheatof

mixing(∆Hm)isfoundtobeakeyquantityindetermin-

ingthemagnitudeofmixing.Theroleofheatofmixing

ongoverningmixingprocessesisquestionedbyR.Kelly

etal.[10].Theyemphasizedtheroleofresidualdefects

inmixing(longrangedeffects).Althoughthethermal

spikeconceptiswidelyaccepted,itsapplicabilityforlow-

energybombardmentsisnotstraightforward.MDsimu-

lationofcascadeshavebeenreportedwithevidencethat

localmeltingoccursduringthetermalspikephaseswhich

persistsforseveralpsinthe3−5keVenergyregime[11].