Film formation during pulsed laser ablation of nickel-palladium composite targets

The films of Pd, Ni, and a Ni-Pd alloy have been obtained by pulsed laser ablation of Ni-Pd composite targets and characterized by electron diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and vibrating-sample magnetometry techniques. It is established that a nonmagnetic metastable hexagonal phase is formed in Ni and Ni-Pd films. Upon annealing, these films acquire an equilibrium cubic structure and exhibit hysteresis during the magnetization reversal. The dependence of the solid-solution lattice constant on the concentration exhibits a positive deviation from Vegard’s law, which is characteristic of alloys with concave liquidus curves.