The orientation and the surface structure of the epitaxially grown iron film is studied by a four grid type LEED-AES system. The substrate of MgO (001) surface is prepared by cleaving in air and heating in ultra high vacuum (5 × 10
-9 Torr) at 500°C. No contaminant is detected by AES from this surface.
Iron atoms are evaporated from an iron wire (99.95%) which is heated by electric current directly, and the film grows epitaxially on the surface. The orientations of the film decided by LEED are denoted as
(001) Fe// (001) MgO
[100] Fe // [110] MgO
When the substrate is kept at room temperature, the surface of deposited film offeres fuzzy spots in LEED, and they become sharp by annealing. As the annealing temperature is kept below 400 °C, only small amounts of carbon and oxygen are detected and the P (1 × 1) pattern is maintained. But when it is higher than 500°C, a distinctive peak of sulphur appears in AES curve and the pattern indicates that the C (2× 2) -S structure is formed. By the heating in the oxygen atomosphere (1 × 10
-9 Torr) at 500°C. the sulphur peak vanishes away.
View full abstract