Studies of the Fabrication Conditions of a Variety of Metal Multilayers

Over the last few years we have been involved with the fabrication of a range of metal multilayers, ranging from a series of single crystal multilayers, layers for amorphisation studies of mainly Ni/Zr and Co/Ti, some layers for diffusion studies such as a Si/Ge and finally some trial structures for potential X-ray mirror systems such as W/Si and W/C which we extended to W/Ti for modelling purposes. In this paper we will describe the role of the sputtering conditions on the properties of the films produced with particular reference to the problems of producing routine epitaxial films; the role of impurities on the surface mobility of surface atoms and finally the role of reflected neutrals (and sputtered) atoms and their thermalisation as they travel from the target to the substrate.