Microstructure and optical properties of the Al2Au intermetallic compound synthesized by ball milling technique

We used the ball milling (BM) technique to synthesize Al₂Au intermetallic powder from elementary powders of different sizes. The analyses of the phase composition the powder after BM and the microstructure of the separate particles was carried out by TEM, SEM and XRD methods. Then, we prepared Al₂Au coatings by vacuum deposition of the obtained powder onto glass substrates. The microstructure of the coatings before and after annealing at 500 °C for 15 min was studied. We established the presence of some volume of amorphous phase both in the initial powder and in the coating. The optical properties of the annealed coating have good correlation with available literature data.