Atomic mechanisms of interdiffusion in metallic multilayers

Interdiffusion data (activation energies and pre-exponential factors) for different metal–metal multilayers (MLs) published in the literature and our own results on Fe/Pt MLs are reviewed. The analysis of the available data suggests that vacancy diffusion is the main interdiffusion mechanism in metallic MLs. An empirical relation between the activation energy for interdiffusion in metallic multilayers, the average activation energy of vacancy diffusion and the activation energy for in-plane grain-boundary diffusion is proposed.