Iron self-diffusion in Fe5Ge3 thin film

Iron-germanides are widely investigated due to their possible application in nanoelectronics and spintronics applications. The feasibility of these materials in industrial application is highly dependent on their structural stability against temperature, therefore it is indispensable to understand temperature induced diffusion processes in this system. In order to study iron self-diffusion, [57Fe5Ge3(36 Å)/nFe5Ge3(62 Å)]10 isotope-periodic multilayer was prepared by molecular beam epitaxy. By using neutron reflectivity technique, which is sensitive to atomic scale diffusion lengths, we have determined the pre-exponent factor and activation energy as D0 = (8.22 3.8) × 10−18 m2 s−1 and Ea = (0.28 0.02) eV respectively.