Determination of the compositions of the DIGM zone in nanocrystalline Ag/Au and Ag/Pd thin films by secondary neutral mass spectrometry

• Gábor Y. Molnár,
• Shenouda S. Shenouda,
• Gábor L. Katona,
• Gábor A. Langer and
• Dezső L. Beke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 474–483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.41

• by grain boundary diffusion-induced grain boundary migration is investigated by secondary neutral mass spectrometry depth profiling in Ag/Au and Ag/Pd nanocrystalline thin film systems. It is shown that the compositions in zones left behind the moving boundaries can be determined by this technique if

• gradients developed by the diffusion processes itself. Keywords: diffusion-induced grain boundary migration; grain boundary diffusion; nanocrystalline films; Introduction It is known that during interdiffusion in micro- or nanocrystalline samples at low temperatures grain boundary (GB) diffusion-induced