AVS 47th International Symposium
    Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Monday Sessions
       Session MI-MoA

Paper MI-MoA4
Real Space Study of Ultrathin Fe Films on Cu(100)

Monday, October 2, 2000, 3:00 pm, Room 206

Session: Thin Films and Multilayers
Presenter: A. Biedermann, Vienna University of Technology, Austria
Authors: A. Biedermann, Vienna University of Technology, Austria
M. Schmid, Vienna University of Technology, Austria
P. Varga, Vienna University of Technology, Austria
Correspondent: Click to Email
Ultrathin iron films deposited on Cu(100) represent a prototype system for the exploration of novel magnetic structures and thin film magnetism. We present the first atomically resolved survey of the surface/ thin film structures using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The clean thin films deposited at room temperature are known to be pseudomorphic (fcc) between 2 and 10 monolayer film thickness, however, with notable deviations from the ideal structure. We have identified (1) a novel "striped-bcc" phase at 4-5 monolayer film thickness and (2) the structure of the initial bcc grains at 6-8 monolayer film thickness. Locally, both the "striped-bcc" phase and the initial bcc-Fe grains show a strained bcc configuration, identifying the tendency of the Fe films to form a bcc-lattice as a common driving force for the observed structures. The appearence of the "striped-bcc" phase coincides with an increased ferromagnetism at 4-5 monolayer thickness seen by several other groups.