Study of the Elemental Composition of Thin Nanocrystalline Films of CoNi and FeNi Alloys by X-ray Spectral Microanalysis

Abstract

The article presents the results of studying the elemental composition of CoNi and FeNi alloy nanocrystalline films by X-ray spectral microanalysis (X-ray microanalyzer based on an energy-dispersive spectrometer, which is part of the REM-103-01 scanning electron microscope). The alloy films with thicknesses of 10-200 nm were obtained by condensation of evaporated initial massive binary CoNi and FeNi alloys in a vacuum of 10–4 Pa. The CoNi alloys were evaporated by an electron beam using an electron diode gun with a condensation rate of 0.5-1.5 nm/s. The purity of the initial Co and Ni metals was at least 99.9 %. The concentrations of the CoNi alloy film components varied over a wide range. The FeNi alloy films were obtained by evaporation of Permalloy 50N technical alloy. The characteristic X-ray spectrum of the film substance was excited by scanning a film section with dimensions of 300x300 m with an electron beam; for thicker films, the scanning section size was 1 x1 m. Thin Ni films of the same thickness were used as standards when conducting quantitative measurements of the elemental composition of alloy films of a certain thickness. The results of X-ray microanalysis indicate high purity of the films. Comparison of the results of X-ray microanalysis measurements of the concentrations of the initial alloys and the obtained films showed their coincidence within the limits of the analysis error.