AVS 51st International Symposium
    Surface Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session SS-TuP

Paper SS-TuP19
Structure and Thermal Stability of Thin Fe Films on Al(001) Surfaces with Ti Interlayers@footnote 1@

Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 4:00 pm, Room Exhibit Hall B

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: C.V. Ramana, Montana State University-Bozeman
Authors: C.V. Ramana, Montana State University-Bozeman
B.-S. Choi, Jeonju University, South Korea
R.J. Smith, Montana State University-Bozeman
Correspondent: Click to Email
Thermal effects and chemical reactions can induce complex changes in the electrical and magnetic properties of thin metal film device structures. Achieving stability of these structures at elevated temperatures is therefore important to operation, and becomes more difficult as the film thickness is reduced to the nanometer regime. In the present work we investigate the structure of Fe films grown on the Al(001) surface with extremely thin Ti interlayers at the interface. Using Rutherford backscattering and channeling (RBS/c), we identify the bcc structure of the Fe(001) film, with the [100] axis rotated 45° relative to the [100] axis of the Al(100) substrate, and an interplanar distance of 1.44Å. RBS/c and low-energy ion scattering (LEIS) were then used to evaluate the thermal stability of the interface. The resulting epitaxial structure is observed to be stable for temperatures up to ~200°C, at which point the diffusion of Al towards the surface begins. At ~400°C, the sample structure begins to disorder. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@Work Supported by NSF Grant DMR-0077534.