Structural in-situ studies of Ni-Ti thin films

Ni-Ti thin films present great advantages for the fabrication of micro-actuators. The phase transformation and precipitation, which are responsible for the shape memory effect, have been widely studied in bulk material and thin films. However, in-situ studies have been limited to the ageing/annealing treatments after deposition. In this study we present a series of results that clearly illustrate the interest of in-situ studies, not only during annealing, but also during sputtering. The in-situ annealing experiments, using a Be-dome furnace installed into the six-circle diffractometer of the ROssendorf BeamLine (ROBL-CRG) at the ESRF, Grenoble, allowed us to determine the kinetics of the phenomena, to identify the sequence of precipitation and to correlate the build-up of the final structure with the processing conditions. The in-situ sputtering experiments were performed using a magnetron sputter deposition chamber also installed into the six-circle diffractometer of the ROBL-CRG beamline. This facility allowed us to follow the structural evolution of the films also during the deposition process.