Title :
Growth morphology of epitaxial Fe films on annealed MgO (001) surfaces
Author :
Subagyo, Agus ; Sueoka, Kazuhisa ; Muka, Koichi
Author_Institution :
Graduate Sch. of Eng., Hokkaido Univ., Sapporo, Japan
fDate :
9/1/1999 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
The effects of substrate annealing on the growth morphology of bcc-Fe(001) films epitaxially grown on MgO (001) surfaces have been investigated. Substrate annealing at 1000°C for 30 minutes produced step-terrace surfaces which are the basis of flat and square Fe islands. By increasing the annealing time, the step profiles are improved to form long straight steps. Longer annealing time caused an increase of segregated impurities regions and a reconstruction of the MgO surface. The presence of the segregated impurities and the reconstructed MgO surface negate the annealing effects, i.e. it reduces the step edge growth that enhances the formation of round islands, degrades the uniformity of Fe island size and increases the rms roughness of Fe films
Keywords :
annealing; discontinuous metallic thin films; ferromagnetic materials; iron; magnetic epitaxial layers; surface reconstruction; surface segregation; surface structure; surface topography; 1000 C; 30 min; Fe; Fe films; Fe island size; MgO; annealed MgO (001) surfaces; annealing time; bcc-Fe(001) films; epitaxial Fe films; flat square Fe islands; growth morphology; reconstructed MgO surface; reconstruction; rms roughness; round islands; segregated impurities; step edge growth; step profiles; step-terrace surfaces; substrate annealing; Annealing; Impurities; Iron; Molecular beam epitaxial growth; Rough surfaces; Substrates; Superconducting films; Surface morphology; Surface reconstruction; Surface roughness;
Journal_Title :
Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on
