Abstract-The formation of the atomically ordered L1 0 -FePd structure during the solid-state reaction in Fe/Pd bilayer thin films is in situ investigated by electron microscopy and electron diffraction analysis. The initial iron and palladium layers were mainly coherently oriented crystallites with the orientation relationship α-Fe (001) [110] || Pd(001) [100]. It is established that the solid-state reaction between the iron and palladium layers upon heating at a rate of 4-8°C/min starts with the formation of the FePd solid solution at 390°C; at 430°C, the formation of the atomically ordered L1 0 -FePd structure is observed. It is shown that at the low heating rate (4-8°C/min), the L1 [8]. Several methods for forming the atomically ordered L1 0 -FePd structure with the [001] orientation were proposed, including simultaneous sputtering of iron and palladium by electron beam epitaxy onto the Pd(001) epitaxial layer grown on the MgO(001) substrate [9], cooling of the single-crystal atomically disordered FePd solid solution from 750 to 600°C at a rate of 0.1-1°C/min at a pressure of 40 MPa [10], and annealing of the singlecrystal atomically disordered FePd solid solution at temperatures of 520-540°C in magnetic field [11]. For the Fe-Pt system, the following techniques for obtaining the atomically ordered L1 0 -FePt structure with a specified orientation were proposed: annealing of polycrystalline Fe/Pt multilayers with a single layer thickness of 0.4 nm on glass substrates [12], fast heating of the 40-nm-thick Fe-Pt solid solution films on glass substrates from room temperature to 800°C at a rate of 40°C/min [13], and annealing of the Fe/FePt/Pt multilayer films at 478°C in external magnetic field [14,15]. Thus, the atomically ordered L1 0 structures in the Fe-Pd and Fe-Pt films are formed mainly from the atomically disordered state by annealing. On the other hand, one of the methods for forming the atomically ordered structures in thin films is the solid-state reaction, which, in contrast to other
SURFACE PHYSICS AND THIN FILMS