Interface sharpening in miscible Ni/Cu multilayers studied by atom probe tomography

Balogh Z. Chellali M.R., Greiwe G.-H., Schmitz G., Erdelyi Z.

Zusammenfassung

Interfaces of Ni/Cu multilayers were studied by atom probe tomography. To this aim, specimenswith sharp or artificially smeared interfaces were prepared and investigated before and afterannealing at 773 K. Owing to three-dimensional subnanometer resolution of the atom probe, localchemical analysis of layer interfaces becomes possible without interferences of grain boundaries orgeometric roughness. In contrast to the classical expectation for a miscible system, but inagreement with more recent theoretical considerations, diffusion reduces the chemical width of the interfaces by up to 50%.