Structural properties of swift heavy ion beam irradiated Fe/Si bilayers

The Fe/Si multilayers were prepared by electron beam evaporation in a cryo-pumped vacuum deposition system. Ag⁺ and Au⁺ ions of 100 MeV at two different fluencies such as 1 × 10¹² ions/cm² and 1 × 10¹³ ions/cm² at a pressure of 10^? 7 torr were used to irradiate the Fe/Si samples. The irradiated samples were analyzed by High-Resolution XRD and it reveals that the irradiated films are having polycrystalline nature and it confirms the formation of the β-FeSi₂. The structural parameters such as crystallite size (D), strain (ε) and dislocation density (δ) have been evaluated from the XRD spectrum. The role of the substrates and the influence of swift heavy ions on the formation of β-FeSi₂ have been discussed in this paper.