Solid state interaction in thin film binary palladium-metal systems

Abstract

Phase formation and the sequence in which phases are formed has been studied for the Pd-rnetal systems. The samples were prepared by electron gun evaporation in vacuo and deposited onto thermally oxidized silicon substrates. This was followed by thermal annealing at various temperatures. Rutherford backscattering, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray emission, Auger spectroscopy and electron diffraction were used to characterize the thin film structures. In the studies of Pd-Zr thin films the formation of the first phase was observed to be PdZr2. Higher temperature anneals showed that the formation of the first phase PdZr2 is succeeded by the phases Pd2Zr and Pd3Zr for Pdo-Zr. The phase PdZr is the only phase, represented on the Pd-Zr binary equilibrium phase diagram, that was not detected. The results were compared with the predictions of the Effective Heat of Formation model.