Epitaxial Alloys Films
Ultrathin metallic alloy films are being used as interconnects in semiconductor devices or magnetic memory films in hard drives. Due to the growth on a substrate and the effect of the upper interface, those films often behave differently than the bulk material; some components may segregate, the magnetic anisotropy might be altered by the interfaces, and the phase behavior is determined by the reduced dimension of the film. We prepare model systems of such alloy films and try to isolate effects in order to explain how the structural changes might be applied to real materials.
