title: Sample preserving deep interface characterization technique.
abstract: We propose a nondestructive technique based on atomic core-level shifts to characterize the interface quality of thin film nanomaterials. Our method uses the inherent sensitivity of the atomic core-level binding energies to their local surroundings in order to probe the layer-resolved binary alloy composition profiles at deeply embedded interfaces. From an analysis based upon high energy x-ray photoemission spectroscopy and density functional theory of a Ni/Cu fcc (100) model system, we demonstrate that this technique is a sensitive tool to characterize the sharpness of a buried interface. We performed controlled interface tuning by gradually approaching the diffusion temperature of the multilayer, which lead to intermixing. We show that core-level spectroscopy directly reflects the changes in the electronic structure of the buried interfaces, which ultimately determines the functionality of the nanosized material.
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA. erikh@lanl.gov
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Holmström
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Olovsson
authors.forename: I A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Abrikosov
authors.forename: A M N
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Niklasson
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gorgoi
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Karis
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Svensson
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schäfers
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ohrwall
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marcellini
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Eberhardt