Epitaxial growth and magnetic properties of Fe(111) films on Si(111) substrate using a GaSe(001) template

Abstract

We report the growth of Fe(111) overlayers on unstrained GaSe(001) epitaxied on a Si(111)-H terminated substrate. The GaSe prevents chemical reaction between Fe and Si and enables the achievement of fully relaxed Fe films above monolayer coverage, despite the 8% lattice mismatch between Fe and GaSe. The evolution of the magnetic properties and chemical reactivity of the iron layer has been studied as a function of thickness. The reduction of magnetization for very thin Fe films has been correlated with a self-limited solid-state reaction at the Fe/GaSe interface.