Amorphous to crystalline transition in Dy-Fe thin films

The crystallization of vacuum-deposited amorphous Dy-Fe thin films was studied by transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction. The effect of thickness, deposition rate and substrate temperature on the crystallization process have been investigated. The results show that the crystallization thicknessd _c decreases with increasing deposition rate and substrate temperature. The number density of Dy-Fe islands were found to be almost constant at (4–5)×10¹¹ cm^–2 in the thickness range 20 Å<d <50 Å. The number density decreases with increase ind _c .