The evolution of surface structures of coevaporated and sputtered amorphous Zr65Al7.5Cu27.5 films with varying deposition conditions is investigated primarily with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). While vapor deposited thin films reveal pronounced structure formation, depending on parameters, such as substrate temperature, film composition (variation of the Al versus the Cu content) and the angle of incidence, comparable sputtered films hardly show any structure formation. With the help of a numerical analysis of the STM data, surface diffusion, self–shadowing and energy transfer in the case of sputtering can be identified as the main structure forming mechanisms. Presuming these atomic processes, it is possible to model the main experimentally observed features of amorphous thin film growth by the use of stochastic continuum growth equations, which are numerically solved. Additionally, the connection to intrinsic stress formation during film growth is discussed.

The thermal expansion coefficients of glass-forming Zr-based alloys were measured in the melt, the undercooled liquid and the glassy/crystalline state. Due to the high reactivity of the liquid material the experiments were performed containerlessly in an electrostatic levitator. We used an optical method where the samples were imaged with a high-resolution CCD- camera and the volume of the samples was evaluated by digital image processing. The coefficients of thermal expansion in the liquid and in the solid state could be determined from the volume versus temperature curves. The results can be compared with measurements in the electromagnetic levitation facility TEMPUS performed under microgravity conditions in the mission MSL-1 and ground based DMA-measurements. The thermal expansion data can be interpreted in terms of the free volume model.

Surfaces with artificial roughness were generated by deposition of nanoparticles on single crystalline substrates. Nanoparticles with an average size ≈ 15 nm were produced by inert gas condensation and deposited in situ on the substrate mounted inside a modified ultra high vacuum (UHV) transmission electron microscope (TEM). We have investigated the smoothing behavior on annealing based on the difference in surface energies between cluster and substrate and their heat of mixing. The cluster substrate combination Co/Cu(100) was chosen as a model system in which the cluster has a significantly higher surface energy than the substrate. Upon deposition at 600 K, the clusters do not remain on the surface, but rather burrow into the substrate. This is confirmed by a detailed strain analysis of the particles. Nanoparticles in the system Ge/Si(100) in contrast have a lower surface energy than the substrate and are completely miscible. The particles assume the substrate orientation around 700 K. At 900 K coherent islands form which are arranged in clusters of 4 in the form of a square. The reason for this previously unobserved pattern is not yet understood.

The possibility that crystal-to-amorphous phase transformations can be induced by one or more underlying instabilities of the crystalline phase has been investigated in highly supersaturated solid solutions of Nb-Pd. Several unusual properties were discovered that may be identified as precursor effects of the collapse of the bcc α-Nb terminal solution to the amorphous phase. Elastic neutron diffraction measurements of α-Nb solutions found, with increasing Pd concentration, an anomalously large increase of the average atomic root-mean-square displacement to about half of the value at which the Lindemann criterion predicts the lattice should melt. Low-temperature heat capacity measurements yielded a concomitant decrease in the Debye temperature, suggesting that supersaturation causes an elastic modulus to soften. Single crystals of α-Nb solutions at high supersaturations have a highly anisotropic structure that is visible in transmission electron microscopy images; it is consistent with the development of a soft phonon mode leading to a bcc-to-ω phase transformation. Considered together with the results of other recent experiments, these findings suggest that shear instability of the crystalline phase plays an important role in the crystal-to-amorphous transformation and that the average static mean-square displacement of atoms in the lattice acts as a useful parameter for the stability of the crystal with respect to amorphization.

Amorphous ZrCo-alloy films, prepared by electron beam deposition in ultra high vacuum (UHV), are investigated in situ with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) in constant current mode. The topographs, statistically analysed by height-height-correlation functions, show a surface roughness on two different length scales. The surface structures on a larger scale (7.0 to 12.0nm in diameter), which vary with substrate temperature, film composition and film thickness, are discussed in relation to surface tension and diffusion kinetics during film growth. The structures on a smaller scale (0.4 to 0.7nm in diameter) have to be discussed with respect to the limits of atomic resolution.

Thin film structures of crystalline Zr and Co, deposited in UHV, are investigated by bending beam technique and by X-ray diffraction. During isothermal annealing and interdiffusion reaction of the thin film double layer and multilayer packages large compressive stresses are generated while an amorphous ZrCo-phase is formed. This can, at first hand, be understood in terms of the Kirkendall effect where Co atoms, as the main moving species, lead to a volume increase of the film beyond the Co interface. The observed change in Zr lattice spacing in accordance with the evolution of mechanical stress indicates that the compressive stress is built up particularly within the Zr layer due to the solution of Co in Zr grains during the initial amorphization reaction. Film structures, having Co already present in the crystalline Zr layer after film deposition, show a decrease in reaction kinetics combined with a lower stress level, indicating that the interdiffusion reaction is depending on the stress state in the Zr grains. At late stages of annealing in high vacuum a sudden increase of additional compressive stress is observed, which could be attributed to the oxidation of Zr, very likely due to the formation of diffusion paths for oxygen through the Co (cap-) layer (Kirkendall voids). Such oxidation behavior was not observed with samples measured in situ in UHV directly after film deposition.

Single crystalline YSZ and Y2O3 thin films are grown on Si(100) by e-beam evaporation. The amorphous S1O2 surface layer is removed in-situ by initially growing at low oxygen partial pressures in the case of YSZ or by first evaporating metallic Y for the growth of Y2O3. Epitaxy occurs by a solid state reaction after the SiO2 has been reduced by metallic Zr or Y. For Si/YSZ/Y2O3 the growth is cube on cube while in the case of Si/Y2O3/YSZ the oxide layers grow twinned in (110) orientation. XPS analysis and AES depth profiles reveal the reoxidation of the Si during further growth. Critical temperatures of 90 K and high current densities of 3.2×106 A/cm2 are measured on 150 nm thick YBCO films on SOS/YSZ/Y2O3 proving the excellent quality of the YBCO and the underlying buffer layers.

Thin-film reactions of Co with Zr have been studied in the temperature range between 473 and 523 K by electrical conductance measurements and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (CS-TEM). The reduction of the electrical conductance during the solid state reaction is explained by formation and growth of an amorphous phase at every Zr/Co interface. For long reaction times the growth of the layer thickness follows a shifted $\sqrt t$ law. For short reaction times the measurements show a linear time law, which is expected for an interface limited reaction.

Metallic glass formation by solid state reactions has been observed in multilayer Zr-Co diffusion couples. The kinetics of the reaction are limited by the diffusion of the Co-atoms in the growing amorphous layer, at least for longer times, as shown by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy and resistance measurements. The latter one provides the interdiffusion constant and the activation energy of about 1.1 eV. Deposition of the crystalline layers at 77 K results in an enhanced amorphization process in the first stage of the reaction and gives preliminary answers about the nucleation of the amorphous phase.