Morphology characteristic of surface crystallization on amorphous Ni P film

The structure and morphology of amorphous Ni88P12 alloy films prepared by chemical deposition on p-Si 100.substrates at 363 K are studied by scanning tunneling microscopy, atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction before and after treatments of oxidation–reduction and crystallization. The results show that amorphous Ni88P12 alloy films are an assembly of micrometer-scale grains, each of which consists of nanoparticles. The surface crystallites form when the films are treated by an oxidation–reduction cycle at temperatures below the normal crystallization temperature. Two kinds of grains with different shapes have been detected. The morphological features of the crystallites developed from the nanoparticles of the amorphous film after crystallization is described. q1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved