Intermetallic compound formations in titanium-copper thin-film couples

Formation of intermetallic compounds in Ti-Cu thin film bilayer samples has been studied between 300–475 °C by Rutherford backscattering and glancing-angle x-ray diffraction techniques. The first intermetallic compound to be formed was TiCu and was followed by TiCu3, the latter showed detectable deviations from the stoichiometry. The thickening of both compounds obeyed a parabolic relationship with time. The interdiffusion coefficient derived from compound formation can be described by the following expressions: TiCu:D=4.85×10−4 exp(—1.48eV/kT) cm2/sec, TiCu3:D=7.73×10−2 exp(—1.82eV/kT) cm2/sec.