An investigation was made of the effects of surface roughness and grain boundary diffusion, at high temperatures, upon the Auger electron-spectroscopic sputter depth profiles of bi-layers. An enhanced mobility during sputtering at high temperatures made Ag atoms migrate continuously from islands, to cover neighboring exposed Co. It was deduced that the grain boundary diffusion of Ag could be described by:

D (cm2/s) = 1.0 x 10-8 exp[-0.46(eV)/kT]

Y.S.Lee, I.S.Choi, K.Y.Lim, K.Jeong, C.N.Whang, H.S.Choe, Y.P.Lee: Journal of Applied Physics, 1996, 79[7], 3534-9