Rapid Identification of Areas of Interest in Thin Film Materials Libraries by Combining Electrical, Optical, X‑ray Diffraction, and Mechanical High-Throughput Measurements: A Case Study for the System Ni–Al

The efficient identification of compositional areas of interest in thin film materials systems fabricated by combinatorial deposition methods is essential in combinatorial materials science. We use a combination of compositional screening by EDX together with high-throughput measurements of electrical and optical properties of thin film libraries to determine efficiently the areas of interest in a materials system. Areas of interest are compositions which show distinctive properties. The crystallinity of the thus determined areas is identified by X-ray diffraction. Additionally, by using automated nanoindentation across the materials library, mechanical data of the thin films can be obtained which complements the identification of areas of interest. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated by using a Ni–Al thin film library as a reference system. The obtained results promise that this approach can be used for the case of ternary and higher order systems.