Kinetics of phase formation in binary thin films: the Ni/Al case

The growth and/or dissociation of the intermetallic phases which are produced by interdiffusion in metallic thin film multilayers is studied by an approach based on a concentration-dependent diffusivity. No assumption is made on the a priori presence of seed layers of the phases that are expected to grow. Application to the Ni/Al system gives a good agreement with the experimental data reported in the literature.