Spectroscopic study of interfaces in Al/Ni periodic multilayers

¹ Laboratoire de Chimie-Physique - Matière et Rayonnement, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS-UMR 7614, 11 rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
² Laboratoire de Magnétisme de Bretagne, FRE/CNRS 2697, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, 6 avenue Le Gorgeu, CS 93837, 29238 Brest Cedex 3, France

Corresponding author: karine.le_guen@upmc.fr

Received: 7 July 2008
Accepted: 20 November 2008
Published online: 31 January 2009

Abstract

Using electron-induced X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES), we have studied two Al/Ni periodic multilayers that differ only by their annealing temperature: as-deposited and annealed at 115 °C. Our aim is to show that XES can provide further details about the chemistry at the metal-metal interface, in addition to what is obtained by X-ray diffraction. The distribution of valence states exhibiting Al 3p and Ni 3d character is determined from the analysis of the Al and Ni emission bands respectively. The multilayer emission bands are compared to those of reference materials: pure Al and Ni metals as well as Al₃Ni, Al₃Ni₂ and AlNi intermetallics. We provide evidence that, for temperatures up to 115 °C, Al₃Ni is the major component of the multilayer.