Abstract
The effects of heat treatment on electroless amorphous NiReP alloy films of various compositions were systematically investigated in respect to their electrical properties (specific resistance and TCR), film structure (X-ray diffraction, TEM and TREED) and crystallization process (DSC). On the basis of heat treatment behavior, the four representative films may be divided into two groups, a lower Re content group (Ni75.9Re1.4P22.7, Ni72.1Re8.3P19.6 and Ni64.8Re21.7P13.7), and a higher Re content group (Ni51.2Re44.0P4.8).
In the lower content group, heat teatment produces abrupt reduction in electrical resistance properties at a certain temperature due to precipitation of a Ni3P phase. In the higher content group, resistance properties show an abrupt drop in specific resistance with heat treatment to 200°C, and thereafter are insensitive to heat treatment temperature. The films of higher content group precipitate only metal phases (fcc Ni and hcp Re) under heat treatment, and the insensitivity of the resistance properties is attributed to the fact that the crystallized metal phases contain many grain boundaries (or defects) even under HRTEM (High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope) at very high magnification.
