Microstructure of ion-bombarded Fe–Ti and Fe–Ti–C multilayered films

Abstract

Ion-beam-induced microstructure of the iron-rich end of the Fe–Ti and Fe–Ti–C systems was studied by using multilayered thin-film samples with a linearly varying composition of the metallic constituents. The ion bombardment was carried out using Xe++ ions at 600 keV. A mixing of iron and titanium in binary samples was complete after a bombardment with 8×1015 ions/cm2 whereas Fe–Ti–C samples were only partially mixed after the fluence of 1.8×1016 ions/cm2. Transmission electron microscope studies revealed that the microstructure of Fe–Ti samples was amorphous or amorphous and crystalline iron over a wide range of the compositions investigated. In the case of Fe–Ti–C, the microstructure consisted of crystalline iron and titanium together with a very little amorphous phase.