Solid State Amorphization in Metal-Si Systems

The formation of amorphous interlayer (a-interlayer) by solid state diffusion in diffusion couples has been one of the most challenging problems in condensed matter physics in recent years. The a-interlayer has been found to occur in all refractory metal/Si and a number of rare earth (RE) metal and platinum group metal and crystalline silicon systems. In this article, we highlight the progresses made in the past few years in the study of amorphous interlayers.