Maximum undercooling results for the icosahedral phase (i-phase), polytetrahedral C14 Laves phase, and solid solution phases are presented as a function of composition in Ti-Zr-Ni liquids. Containerless processing was achieved using the electrostatic levitation facility located at NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center. The maximum reduced undercooling decreases with increasing icosahedral short-range order in the ordered phase. The first synchrotron x-ray diffraction data from aerodynamically levitated liquids of Ti-Zr-Ni alloys suggest an icosahedral short-range order in the liquids, supporting Frank's hypothesis, correlating icosahedral order in the liquid with the nucleation barrier to the crystal phase. The strong negative heats of mixing between Ti/Zr and Ni and their relative atomic sizes likely favor the formation of this local icosahedral order.

Different phases of FeN thin films and Fe/FeN multilayers were prepared by reactive rf sputtering. The release of nitrogen and the crystallographic transformations during annealing were monitored by thermal desorption spectrometry and X-ray diffraction experiments. Finally, the diffusivity of nitrogen in the γ-Fe4N phase was evaluated.

In this paper, we report on the growth and the study of Ti/TiN nanometric multilayers. The preparation of these films has been carried out by high vacuum diode r.f. sputtering. Growth was in-situ monitored by kinetic ellipsometry. Deposition temperature was kept to room and low temperature (-120°C) respectively in order to modify the interface properties and consequently to understand the effect of the interfaces on the film's mechanical properties.

The thickness of each layer was varied from 1 nm to 10 nm and alternately repeated in order to obtain a total thickness of 200 nm. After deposition, films were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction and grazing X-ray reflectometry for structural determination. This study shows that the TiN-Ti boundary is composed of TiNx, with x going from the nominal nitrogen concentration of the TiN layer to 0. This can be due either to a surface reaction of the incident titanium during the Ti sequence with the nitrogen present at the film surface or to a reaction of nitrogen with the target surface during the TiN sequence.

Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE) and Grazing X‐ray Reflectance (GXR) techniques are applied for different insulating films to determine precisely the thickness and optical indices of the layers. Antireflective coatings for microlithography in the DUV range are first analyzed. In the infrared range the layers are transparent and one can take into account the optical index of the layers by a simple dispersion law. Thicknesses obtained by this method are checked by the GXR technique. Extraction of the optical indices from UV to IR is made very accurately taking into account different SE measurements at various incident angles simultaneously. Amorphous carbon thin films are also analyzed in the same way. The main difference is that the layer is absorbant in the entire wavelength range. In this case, a first characterization by the GXR technique is essential to extract the thickness of the layer. Then the optical indices of the layer can be extracted very accurately by SE.

Fe-N thin films have attracted considerable attention because they are potential candidates for magnetic recording with their large saturation magnetization and their good corrosion resistance1. It has even been demonstrated that saturation magnetization can be larger than the bulk iron one for low nitrogen contents2. The origin of the enhanced magnetic moment could occur from the metastable α″ Fe16N2 phase or from an expanded bcc FeN structure which is also called α FeN.

In this paper, the synthesis of a new structure of iron in (100) Felr superlattices grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy is reported. Two-dimensional growth up to 4 planes at 400K occurs, as shown by RHEED oscillations. Electron diffraction also gives evidence that the Fe lattice is pseudomorphic to the Ir one during the 2D-growth, and relaxes to the bcc lattice for thicker deposits. An X-Ray analysis shows that the Fe structure is a body centered tetragonal one with a c/a ratio close to 1.25. This phase is observed to be non-Magnetic at room temperature, as a weak ferromagnetic behaviour is observed at low temperatures, except at small Ir thicknesses. This is the evidence of the existence of a low spin phase which seems to undergo a second order phase transition with the atomic volume of iron.