Ion beam mixing: Basic experiments

We review basic quantitative experiments in ion beam mixing of simple layered solid systems. Most have employed ions with mass from 20 to 136 amu and energies between 50 and 600 keV, while sample configurations fall into two categories: ∼ 10 A ̊ "marker" layers of impurity atoms buried in otherwise homogeneous media, and "bilayers" of two materials of several hundred Å each. We tabulate the quantitative results of all such measurements reported to date for marker systems, and the low temperature (in the temperature-independent regime, or < 300 K) results for bilayers. We also compare the collected results with quantitative calculations of collisional mixing and qualitative pictures of relaxation and thermal diffusion mixing from molecular dynamics simulations and chemical rate theory.