Electronic structure of metastable bcc Cu–Cr alloy thin films: Comparison of electron energy-loss spectroscopy and first-principles calculations

Metastable Cu–Cr alloy thin films with nominal thickness of 300nm and composition of Cu67Cr33 (at%) are obtained by co-evaporation using molecular beam epitaxy. The microstructure, chemical phase separation and electronic structure are investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The thin film adopts the body-centered cubic crystal structure and consists of columnar grains with ~50nm diameter. Aberration-corrected scanning TEM in combination with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy confirms compositional fluctuations within the grains. Cu- and Cr-rich domains with composition of Cu85Cr15 (at%) and Cu42Cr58 (at%) and domain size of 1–5nm are observed. The alignment of the interface between the Cu- and Cr-rich domains shows a preference for {110}-type habit plane. The electronic structure of the Cu–Cr thin films is investigated by electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and is contrasted to an fcc-Cu reference sample. The experimental EEL spectra are compared to spectra computed by density functional theory. The main differences between bcc-and fcc-Cu are related to differences in van Hove singularities in the electron density of states. In Cu–Cr solid solutions with bcc crystal structure a single peak after the L3-edge, corresponding to a van Hove singularity at the N-point of the first Brillouin zone is observed. Spectra computed for pure bcc-Cu and random Cu–Cr solid solutions with 10at% Cr confirm the experimental observations. The calculated spectrum for a perfect Cu50Cr50 (at%) random structure shows a shift in the van Hove singularity towards higher energy by developing a Cu–Cr d-band that lies between the delocalized d-bands of Cu and Cr. •Compositional fluctuations on the order of 1–5nm in Cu- and Cr-rich domains are observed.•EELS determines a single van Hove singularity for bcc Cu–Cr solid solutions.•The electronic structure is dominated by d-band interactions of Cu and Cr.•Calculated spectra confirm the experimental observations.