Annealing behavior of magnesium and aluminum implanted with iron ions

Magnesium and aluminum were alloyed by implantation with iron ions. The implantation energy was 200 keV while the ion doses ranged over several decades from 1x1015 up to 9x1017 cm-2. In this way highly disordered alloyed layers with up to 90 at.% iron were obtained [1]. To study possible ordering, stabilization and redistribution processes samples were annealed in vacuum at subsequently increasing temperatures up to 600 °C for aluminum and up to 400 °C for magnesium. The annealing process was observed by conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy, Auger electron depth profiling, and X-ray diffraction. In the case of the Fe-Al system different iron aluminides are formed. In the case of the Fe-Mg system (insoluble with each other), a-iron is precipitated in small clusters in the final state.