Microstructural investigations on ion beam mixed Fe/Ag multilayer

Electron beam evaporated iron/silver multilayer deposited on NaCl crystal were irradiated with 90 keV Ar+ ions with different fluence of 1 × 1016, 5 × 1016 and 7 × 1016 ions/cm2 to study ion beam mixing in Fe/Ag thermally immiscible system. Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray mapping were used to analyse the ion beam mixing in this system. We have found that as the fluence increases Ag particles disintegrate into smaller particles and finally at the highest fluence a homogeneous mixture of Ag and Fe particles is formed. The particle size of Ag and Fe for the highest fluence is found to be in the range of 10–20 nm. The decrease in the particle size is attributed to the higher chemical affinity and smaller thickness of Ag and Fe layers.