Thm Sohd Fdms, 92 (1982) 315-321 PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION 315 CRYSTALLIZATION OF AMORPHOUS SPUTTERED 55~oCr-45~oN1 THIN FILMS M I BIRJEGA, C A CONSTANTIN, I TH FLORESCU AND C SARBU Central lnstttute of Phystcs, In~tttute of Phystcs and Technology of Matertals, P 0 Box 5206 Bucharest (Romanta ) (Received August 10, 1981, accepted October 19, 1981) Transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction data are reported for crystalline metastable phases obtained by vacuum annealing amorphous sputtered 55wt ~oCr-45wt ~oNI thin films on their substrates for 3 h at temperatures ranging from 170 to 370 °C These data are compared with data for the metastable phases observed in as-deposited Cr-N1 thin films prepared by vacuum evaporation or by sputtering | INTRODUCTION Data on the amorphous and crystalline metastable phases observed in as- deposited Cr-NI thin films prepared by vacuum evaporation or sputtering are given in Table I We have previously applied various glass-forming criteria to the Cr-NI phase diagram and have concluded that the occurrence of amorphous and crystalline metastable phases is related to characteristics such as a large immiscibility gap between the two solid solutions, the existence of a relatively deep eutectlc and the presence of complex tetrahedrally close-packed Frank-Kasper structures such as the Ix and t7 phases 6 In order to obtain new Information about the occurrence and the range of the temperature stability of these metastable phases, amorphous sputtered 55~oCr-45~o N1 thin films were vacuum annealed on their substrates for 3 h at temperatures ranging from 170 to 370°C The structural transformations induced by the heat treatment were determined by transmission electron microscopy and by electron diffraction examination 2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 55~Cr-45~oNI thin films with thicknesses ranging from 150 to 600 ~ were deposited onto freshly air-cleaved alkali halide substrates using a standard r f sputtering apparatus Before deposition the substrates were heat treated at 300 °C for 30 mIn and then cooled to the deposition temperature of 18 °C Argon of purity 99 998~o was used as the sputtering gas The sputtering was performed at pressures 0040-6090/82/0000-0000/~2 75 © ElsevierSequoia/Printed m The Netherlands