Simulated ion-sputtering and Auger electron spectroscopy depth profiling study of intermixing in Cu/Co

TL;DR

This study combines molecular dynamics simulations and Auger electron spectroscopy depth profiling to analyze ion-induced intermixing in Cu/Co multilayers, demonstrating good agreement and potential for predictive modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a combined experimental and simulation approach to quantify intermixing rates at interfaces, enhancing understanding of ion-sputtering effects.

Findings

AESD-derived low-energy mixing rates match MD simulations

Good agreement between experimental and simulated intermixing data

MD simulations can estimate intermixing rates in interface systems

Abstract

The ion-bombardment induced evolution of intermixing is studied by molecular dynamics simulations and by Auger electron spectroscopy depth profiling analysis (AESD) in Cu/Co multilayer. It has been shown that from AESD we can derive the low-energy mixing rate and which can be compared with the simulated values obtained by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.The overall agreement is reasonably good hence MD can hopefully be used to estimate the rate of intermixing in various interface systems.