Morphological and Interfacial Studies of Fe Clusters on SrTiO₃ (001) Surfaces

Abstract

Fe clusters grown on SrTiO₃ {001} surfaces were studied with UHV-TEM/STM combined system. Fe clusters have two types of epitaxial orientation relationships: one with a simple cube-on-cube with 45° orientation and the other with a higher index interface plane. The second one grows in twins. It was deduced that the clusters with the first orientation relationship have truncated pyramid shapes and stronger bonding energy and that the second one have near-roundish shapes with weaker bondings. The clusters influence each other so that their orientations deviate. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2015.85]