AbstractThe peculiarities of the phase composition and electronic structure of aluminum–silicon composite films near the Al_0.75Si_0.25 composition obtained by the magnetron and ion-beam sputtering methods on a Si(100) silicon substrate are studied using the X-ray diffraction techniques and ultrasoft X-ray emission spectroscopy. In addition to silicon nanocrystals of about 25 nm in size, an ordered solid solution corresponding to the previously unknown Al_3Si phase is formed in magnetron sputtering on a polycrystalline Al matrix. Films obtained by ion-beam sputtering of the composite target are found to be monophasic and contained only one phase of an ordered solid solution of aluminum silicide Al_3Si of the Pm3m cubic system with the primitive cell parameter a = 4.085 Å. However, subsequent pulsed photon annealing of the composite with different radiation doses from 145 to 216 J/cm^2 gives rise to the partial decomposition of the Al_3Si phase with the formation of free metallic aluminum and silicon nanocrystals with sizes in the range from 50 to 100 nm, depending on the pulsed photon radiation dose.
Process-parameter-dependent optical and structural properties of ZrO_2MgO mixed-composite films evaporated from the solid solution