Time-resolved neutron reflectivity measurements for silver photo-diffusion in Ag/Ge-S films

Sakaguchi, Yoshifumi*; Asaoka, Hidehito  ; Uozumi, Yuki; Kawakita, Yukinobu  ; Ito, Takayoshi*; Kubota, Masato ; Yamazaki, Dai  ; Soyama, Kazuhiko  ; Ailavajhala, M.*; Mitkova, M.*

Silver photo-diffusion is one of the attractive phenomena observed in amorphous chalcogenide films such as As2S3 and GeSe2 because of their potential applications in, for example, photo-lithography, memory devices, and fabrication of optical elements. We report the results of neutron reflectivity measuremens for silver photo-diffusion in Ag/Ge-S films under light illumination. The neutron reflectivity measurements have been performed on a polarized neutron reflectometer (BL17, SHARAKU) at Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF), Japan Proton Accerelator Research Complex (J-PARC), Japan. By using the time-of-flight instrument with intensive pulsed neutrons produced by 300kW proton beams and sophisticated event recording system, time evolution of the neutron reflectivity under a light illumination has been revealed with, at least, 2-min time resolution. The reaction rate by the light illumination is discussed based on the detailed analysis of the time-resolved neutron reflectivity results.