Sims investigations on the diffusion of Cu in Ag single crystals

Abstract The technique of secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) has been used to determine the volume diffusion coefficients for copper into silver single crystals over a temperature range of 699 to 897 K. The activation energy, Q , and the frequency factor of the diffusion. D 0 , have been evaluated ( Q = 164.1 ± 1.6 k J/mol, D 0 = (2.9 ± 0.8) × 10 −2 cm 2 /s). These data are in good agreement with previously published results obtained by other techniques. Particular attention is devoted to the techniques used to apply SIMS to quantitative diffusion measurement and to the methods employed for data reduction. Some possible sources of error in the measurements are examined. The formation of a structure on some of the sputtered surfaces has been observed and is briefly discussed.