MULTIPLE LOW-TEMPERATURE INTERFACE REACTIONS - AN ALTERNATIVE ROUTE INTO THE AMORPHOUS STATE OF METALLIC ALLOYS

During the preparation of thin Au/In multilayers (0.39/1.2 nm, total thickness 48 nm) by ion-beam sputtering at 86 K, periodic interface reactions were observed by an in situ measurement of the electrical resistivity. The resulting phase was identified as amorphous AuxIn1-x with compositions x which were controlled by the choice of the individual Au and In layer thicknesses. The formation of these amorphous phases was restricted to a thin interface region (< 6 nm) and, most important, could not be obtained by long-range diffusion of thick Au/In multilayers.