Short- and long-range ion-beam mixing in Cu:Al

Abstract

Ion-beam mixing by 500-keV xenon ions has been studied in targets consisting of 2000-Å films of aluminium on a polycrystalline aluminium substrate, onto which has been evaporated a 500-Å overlayer of copper. Both long- and short-range-mixing processes have been identified, by RBS analysis of the irradiated targets, as a deep copper tail in the aluminium and interfacial broadening, respectively. The long-range component varies linearly with xenon fluence, is temperature-independent in the interval 40–500 K, and is not influenced by the presence of an interfacial oxide layer between the copper and aluminium layers. The number of long-range-mixed atoms is in agreement with theoretical estimates of the recoil mixing. The short-range mixing, which is the dominating process, has a squareroot dependence on xenon fluence and is independent of temperature between 40 and 300 K, increasing rapidly at higher temperatures. The broadening attributed to the short-range mixing is explained by interstitial diffusion within the cascade. For small xenon fluences, interfacial oxide layers inhibited both short-range mixing and thermal diffusion. Higher xenon fiuences subdued the inhibition.