PNNL

Abstract

Tailored metal alloy thin film-oxide interfaces generated using molecular beam epitaxial (MBE) deposition of alloy thin films on a single crystalline oxide substrate can be used for detailed studies of irradiation damage response on the interface structure. However presence of nanoscale phase separation in the MBE grown alloy thin films can impact the metal-oxide interface structure. Due to nanoscale domain size of such phase separation it is very challenging to characterize by conventional techniques. Therefor laser assisted atom probe tomography (APT) was utilized to study the phase separation in epitaxial Cr0.61Mo0.39, Cr0.77Mo0.23, and Cr0.32V0.68 alloy thin films grown by MBE on MgO(001) single crystal substrates. Statistical analysis, namely frequency distribution analysis and Pearson coefficient analysis of experimental data was compared with similar analyses conducted on simulated APT datasets with known extent of phase separation. Thus the presence of phase separation in Cr-Mo films, even when phase separation was not clearly observed by x-ray diffraction, and the absence of phase separation in the Cr-V film were thus confirmed.