Development of multifunctional thin films using high-throughput experimentation methods

Abstract

Abstract This paper describes the use of thin film high-throughput experimentation methods for the efficient development of multifunctional materials, using Ni – Ti – X and ferromagnetic shape memory alloys as examples. The thin films were fabricated in the form of binary, ternary, and quaternary materials libraries by special magnetron sputter deposition processes. These materials libraries were subsequently processed and characterized by high-throughput experimentation methods in order to relate compositional information with structural and functional properties. For this, appropriate visualization of the data is necessary. Results show that the martensitically transforming regions in ternary thin films are generally larger than was known from literature. Within these regions, the variation of the functional properties can be mapped with respect to the composition and microstructure, and thus the most suitable materials for applications can be effectively selected.