Structural properties of TiC/Fe nanoscale multilayers synthesized by the ion-beam sputtering technique

TiC/Fe multilayers with modulation wavelengths ranging from 3.5 nm to 20.6nm were prepared by the ion-beam sputtering deposition technique at nearly ambient temperature. It was found that the multilayers with relatively low modulation wavelengths exhibited epitaxial-like growth. The orientation was (200)TiC//(200)Fe and [001]TiC//[001]Fe. With increasing modulation wavelength, the TiC/Fe multilayers underwent a transition from epitaxial-like superlattices to uniaxial textured polycrystalline multilayers. A possible explanation is discussed.