1. © Effect Of Phase Transitions In Copper-Germanium Thin Film Alloys On Their Electrical Resistivity Tawancy, HM; Aboelfotoh, MO CHAPMAN HALL LTD, JOURNAL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE; pp: 6053-6064; Vol: 30 King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals http://www.kfupm.edu.sa Summary An investigation was carried out to study the phase transitions in Cu-Ge thin films (80-200 nm in thickness) containing 0, 5, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 at% Ge, and the corresponding effects on electrical resistivity. For these films, the phase transitions were found to follow the sequence: alpha-phase (disordered face centred cubic, fcc, solid solution); 5 at% Ge --> zeta-phase (disordered hexagonal close packed, hcp); 15 at% Ge --> zeta-phase + epsilon(1)-phase (ordered orthorhombic, Cu3Ge); 20 at% Ge --> epsilon(1)-phase; 25 at% Ge --> (epsilon(1)-phase + progressively increasing proportions of a disordered Ge-rich solid solution); 30-50 at% Ge. Germanium was found to have no marked effect on grain size of all films studied excluding grain boundaries as electron scattering centres. Transition of the alpha-phase into the zeta-phase was found to occur in a highly coherent manner, which could be related to the reduced stacking fault energy of Cu by the addition of Ge. Most evidence pointed out that the initial increase in resistivity within the alpha- phase range was related to hcp scattering centres, which could be associated with a localized high concentration of Ge. At 15 at% Ge, the resistivity reached a maximum value of about 50 mu Omega cm associated with the complete transformation of alpha-phase into the zeta-phase. With continued increase in Ge concentration, the resistivity was found to gradually decrease reaching a minimum value of about 10 mu Omega cm at 25 at % Ge, which was correlated with complete transition of the zeta- phase into the ordered epsilon(1)-phase (Cu3Ge). It was shown that the superlattice of Cu3Ge could directly be derived from the disordered zeta-phase by minor atom Copyright: King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals; http://www.kfupm.edu.sa

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