Interface stability and solid-state amorphization in an immiscible Cu–Ta system

Assisted by ab initio calculation, a realistic Cu–Ta potential is derived and applied to determine the energies of Cu/Ta interfaces with various orientations by molecular dynamics simulations. It turns out that the (111) Cu/(100) Ta and (111) Cu/(110) Ta interfaces are thermally stable at a temperature of 873 K and that for the other Cu/Ta interfaces, the interface energies are sufficiently high to drive interfacial reaction and solid-state amorphization, which features an asymmetric behavior, i.e., the amorphous interlayer grows faster toward Cu than that toward Ta.