Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T09:33:35.270Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Interfacial Electronic Charge Transfer and Density of States in Short Period Cu/Cr Multilayers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

A. F. Bello
Affiliation:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94551.
T. Van Buuren
Affiliation:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94551.
J. E. Klepeis
Affiliation:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94551.
T. W. Barbee Jr.
Affiliation:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94551.
Get access

Abstract

Nanometer period metallic multilayers are ideal structures to investigate electronic phenomena at interfaces between metal films since interfacial atoms comprise a large atomic fraction of the samples. The multilayers studied were fabricated by magnetron sputtering and consist of bilayers from 1.9 nm to 3.3 nm. X-ray diffraction, cross-section TEM and plan-view TEM show the Cu layers to have a BCC structure Cu in contrast to its equilibrium FCC structure. The electronic structure of the Cu and the Cr layers in several samples of thin Cu/Cr multilayers were studied using x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). Total electron yield was measured and used to study the white lines at the Cu L2 and L3 absorption edges. The white lines at the Cu absorption edges are strongly related to the unoccupied d-orbitals and are used to calculate the amount of charge transfer between the Cr and Cu atoms in interfaces. Analysis of the Cu white lines show a charge transfer of 0.026 electrons/interfacial Cu atom to the interfacial Cr atoms. In the Cu XAS spectra we also observe a van Hove singularity between the L2 and L3 absorption edges as expected from the structural analysis. The absorption spectra are compared to partial density of states obtained from a full-potential linear muffin-tin orbital calculation. The calculations confirm the presence of charge transfer and indicate that it is localized to the first two interfacial layers in both Cu and Cr.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1 Bello, A. F., Buuren, T. Van, Barbee, T. W. Jr., Conf. MRS Spring Meeting (1998).Google Scholar
2 Guinier, A., X-Ray Diffraction In Crystals, Imperfect Crystals, and Amorphous Bodies, San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Co., 1963.Google Scholar
3 Payne, A. P. and Clemens, B. M., J. Mat. Res. 7, 13701376 (1992).Google Scholar
4 Grioni, M., Acker, J. F. Van, Czyzyk, M. T., Fuggle, J. C., Phys. Rev. B. 45, 33093318 (1992).Google Scholar
5 Klepeis, J. E., unpublished results (1997).Google Scholar
6 Methfessel, M., Phys. Rev. B 38, 15371540 (1988).Google Scholar
7 Methfessel, M., Rodriguez, C. O., and Andersen, O.K., Phys. Rev. B 40, 20092012 (1989).Google Scholar
8 Hoffmann, R., Rev. Mod. Phys. 60, 601628 (1988).Google Scholar
9 McMahan, A. K., Klepeis, J. E., Schilfgaarde, M. van, and Methfessel, M., Phys. Rev. B 50, 1074210760 (1994).Google Scholar
10 Ebert, H., Stohr, J., Parkin, S. S. P., Samant, M., and Nilsson, A., Phys. Rev. B. 53, 1606716073 (1996).Google Scholar
11 Barbee, T. W. Jr. , unpublished results (1997).Google Scholar