Interdiffusion in amorphous AlxZr1-x alloys

Abstract

Interdiffusion in amorphous AlxZr1−x compositionally modulated multilayers was investigated by Auger electron spectroscopy sputter-depth profiling. Microstructural characterisation was performed by X-ray diffraction and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy. The temperature-dependent chemical diffusion coefficient could be deduced at a series of temperatures in the range of 356 °C to 415 °C and was found to be weakly dependent on composition. The activation enthalpy for the chemical diffusion coefficients is slightly smaller at the composition of the Al-rich am-Al0.62Zr0.38 sublayer (1.6 eV) than at the composition of the Zr-rich am-Al0.27Zr0.73 sublayer (1.8 eV), which is not related to the concentration dependence of the excess free volume but to the smaller atomic size and mass of Al as compared to Zr. The smaller activation enthalpy for interdiffusion in partially crystallised specimens than in entirely amorphous AlxZr1−x multilayers is ascribed to the relatively large excess free volume in the grain boundaries of the nanocrystalline sublayers, as compared to the amorphous phase, at large Al concentrations. On the basis of an evaluation of the role of diffusion-induced stress in amorphous systems, it is shown that stresses induced by interdiffusion relax relatively fast by viscous flow and do not affect the determined diffusion coefficients.