Au/Ni Multilayer Transformation with Temperature: A HREM Study

Growth of Ni on (001) Au has been widely studied. Furthermore it has been shown that a structural change occurs when an Au/Ni multilayer is heated up. This transformation can be described as an ordering which is unexpected from the equilibrium phase diagram. A high-resolution electron microscopy study of the transformation of a coherent Au/Ni multilayer is presented in this paper. The transformation has been characterized by in-situ HREM and by extensive image processings made on both simulated and experimental images.