Ion-beam induced transformations in nanoscale multilayers: Evolution of clusters with preferred length scales

Abstract

Ion-irradiation-induced modifications of a periodic PtC multilayer system containing a small amount of Fe have been analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXRD) studies. The multilayer stack with 16 PtC layer pairs (period of 4.23 nm) was fabricated on a glass substrate. A 2 MeV Au 2+ ion beam was rastered on the sample to obtain uniformly irradiated strips with fluences from 1× 10 14 to 1× 10 15 ions cm 2. Ion irradiation has been found to cause preferential migration of Fe towards Pt layers [Bera, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. B 212, 530 (2003)]. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM) shows considerable atomic redistribution for irradiation at the highest ion fluence (1× 1015 ions cm2). This structure is composed of small clusters. Phase separation and cluster formation processes are discussed. Periodic multilayers have periodicity only in the direction normal to the multilayer surface. However, Fourier transform (FT) of the XTEM images of the sample irradiated at the highest fluence shows extra off-normal Fourier components of superlattice periodicities arising due to ion irradiation. These extra spots in the FT are due to preferential length scales in intercluster separation in three dimensions. With a proper understanding of this phenomenon it may be possible to fabricate useful three-dimensional self-assembled structures of nanoclusters. Our high resolution transmission electron microscopy and GIXRD results reveal the formation of an FePt alloy. As FePt is a magnetic alloy, our observation raises the possibility of fabrication of ion-beam induced magnetic nanocluster lattices. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.