Identification of amorphous phases in the Fe–Ni–Co ternary alloy system using continuous phase diagram material chips

In conventional bulk alloy phase diagrams, each discrete composition point is prepared and characterized one at a time, and consequently has a different thermodynamic history. The continuous phase diagram (CPD) offers a unique opportunity to conduct high throughput construction of thin film phase diagram with single universal thermodynamic history applied to all the compositions. Here, we performed the CPD experiment of Fe–Ni–Co ternary alloy system using combinatorial ion beam sputtering system. The high throughput screenings of structural and physical properties were made using scanning microbeam X-ray diffractometer, scanning magneto-optic Kerr effect (SMOKE) measurement, and scanning nano-indentation microscope. The results are consistent with the known structural phases and phase boundaries. In addition, we identified two very narrow amorphous regions, carefully examined and confirmed by synchrotron microbeam X-ray diffraction studies.