Short-range atomic order in the surface layer of sputter-deposited Al0.6W0.4 thin film investigated using directional elastic peak electron spectroscopy

A mechanism of creating maxima in directional elastic peak electron spectroscopy (DEPES) polar profiles for textured polycrystalline samples and for amorphous samples with a short-range atomic order is proposed and discussed. DEPES was used in investigating the atomic order in Al and W polycrystalline samples. The maxima found in DEPES polar profiles correspond with the texture expected for these samples on the basis of literature data. A method of processing DEPES data of amorphous metallic alloy with a short-range atomic order is proposed and successfully used for an Al_0.6W_0.4 alloy. The results obtained indicate that nanocrystals with an average linear size in the range of 1 nm and with a particular orientation with respect to the sample surface are present in the surface layer of the sample investigated. A concentration of nanocrystals with such orientation equal to 1.9 × 10¹⁹/cm³ was found when using of the contrast obtained for the maximum in the DEPES polar profile, corresponding to an incidence angle of zero. The contrast of DEPES profiles for the Al_0.6W_0.4 sample increases remarkably during annealing at 373 K. An increase in the amount of preferentially-oriented nanocrystals is suggested as the probable reason for this increase.