Interfaces and solid state reactions of Zr/Fe multilayers

Metallic multilayers of Fe and Zr, prepared by electron-beam evaporation and sputter deposition, have been characterized by conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction. Amorphous phase formation occurs at the interfaces during deposition for all samples and there is a critical layer thickness near 10 monolayers of each constituent where complete amorphization occurs. The amorphous phase formed upon annealing the 50 monolayer electron-beam sample consumes only about one-third of the Fe before the process saturates.