Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Study of Surface Structure and Magnetism of Fe Thin Films Grown on MgO (001)

Abstract

Substrate preparation procedure dependence of the growth morphology and magnetic properties of 25 ML bcc-Fe(001) thin films epitaxially grown on MgO(001) substrates in a wide range of growth temperature was investigated by means of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The growth morphology of Fe thin films was uniform both on a polished and on an annealed substrate, but nonuniform on a cleaved substrate. It was very difficult to obtain a flat Fe thin film on the cleaved substrate, and the film became discontinuous at or above a growth temperature of 493 K. At a growth temperature of 550 K, atomically defined terraces of Fe thin films were formed on the annealed substrate but were not formed on the polished substrate. A continuous film grown on the annealed substrate at a temperature of 593 K has a less magnetic anisotropy. The other continuous films have low coercivity of about 8 Oe and a biaxial magnetic anisotropy. The dependency of the growth morphology and magnetic properties of Fe thin films upon substrate preparation procedures concerning the presence of step-terraces on the substrate surface is discussed.