On the low temperature mixing processes in metal/ceramic interfaces

Heavy ions in materials science can be used for many applications concerning changes in composition, structure and physical properties. The modification of interfaces in bi-layer samples is frequently performed by ion beam mixing experiments [1-4]. However, the mixing behaviour of the components is much more complicated than in the earlier studied metal/metal systems, because of the more complex structure of the ceramic materials. Samples with different composition (Fe, Cu, Ni, Pt, Zr, Ti and TiO2 on Al2O3, SiO2, MgO and SiC-substrates) were prepared by molecular-beam-epitaxy. The samples were irradiated at the GSI 300kV implantation facility with 150 keV Ar ions at different temperatures. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) was used to obtain the element depth profiles. The surface topography and the surface roughness was studied with a high resolution scanning electron microscope (Philips XL 30 FEG) and with atomic force microscopy (AFM) . The RBS spectra were converted to depth profiles by using the computer code ndf [5]. The width (σf) and the position of the interface was calculated using an error function. The measured and calculated mixing rates are shown in figure 1. In many systems (Cu/Al2O3, Cu/SiC, Fe/Al2O3, Fe/SiO2, Fe/SiC,