Nanoscale phase separation in epitaxial Cr-Mo and Cr-V alloy thin films studied using atom probe tomography: Comparison of experiments and simulation

Journal Article · Fri Nov 21 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4901465· OSTI ID:22402661

Devaraj, A.; Ramanan, S.; Walvekar, S.; Bowden, M. E.; Shutthanandan, V. ^[1]; Kaspar, T. C. ^[2]; Kurtz, R. J. ^[3]

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1. Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352 (United States)
2. Fundamental and Computational Sciences Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352 (United States)
3. Energy and Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352 (United States)

Tailored metal alloy thin film-oxide interfaces generated using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) deposition of alloy thin films on a single crystalline oxide substrate can be used for detailed studies of irradiation damage response on the interface structure. However, the presence of nanoscale phase separation in the MBE grown alloy thin films can impact the metal-oxide interface structure. Due to nanoscale domain size of such phase separation, it is very challenging to characterize by conventional techniques. Therefore, laser assisted atom probe tomography (APT) was utilized to study the phase separation in epitaxial Cr{sub 0.61}Mo{sub 0.39}, Cr{sub 0.77}Mo{sub 0.23}, and Cr{sub 0.32}V{sub 0.68} alloy thin films grown by MBE on MgO(001) single crystal substrates. Statistical analysis, namely frequency distribution analysis and Pearson coefficient analysis of experimental data was compared with similar analyses conducted on simulated APT datasets with known extent of phase separation. Thus, the presence of phase separation in Cr-Mo films, even when phase separation was not clearly observed by x-ray diffraction, and the absence of phase separation in the Cr-V film were confirmed.

• OSTI ID: 22402661
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 116, Issue 19; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALLOYS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DAMAGE
DEPOSITION
DISTRIBUTION
IRRADIATION
LASERS
MAGNESIUM OXIDES
MOLECULAR BEAM EPITAXY
MONOCRYSTALS
NANOSTRUCTURES
SIMULATION
SUBSTRATES
THIN FILMS
TOMOGRAPHY
X-RAY DIFFRACTION