Two dimensional growth of ultrathin Fe films on BaTiO{sub 3} with sharp chemical interface
- Dipartimento di Fisica, CNISM and LNESS, Politecnico di Milano, Via Anzani 42, 22100 Como (Italy)
- Institute of Solid State Physics, Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031 (China)
The Fe/BaTiO{sub 3} interface is a prototypical artificial multiferroic system displaying purely electronic magnetoelectric effects at room temperature. As magneto-electric coupling is essentially localized at the interface, the properties of the very first Fe layers in contact with BaTiO{sub 3} play a major role. In this paper, we investigate, by using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and photoelectron diffraction, the in-situ growth, by molecular beam epitaxy, of ultrathin Fe films (∼7 monolayers) on a BaTiO{sub 3}/SrTiO{sub 3}(001) template. We found that growing the Fe films above room temperature (373 K) is essential in order to avoid island growth and obtain a continuous film. Post-annealing up to 473 K improves the film crystallinity but prevents chemical interdiffusion and roughening. Just an interfacial monolayer of oxidized iron is detected in these conditions, which appears as an unavoidable consequence of the Fe/BaTiO{sub 3} chemical interaction. Its active role in magnetoelectric coupling must be carefully taken into account to correlate theoretical predictions and experiments.
- OSTI ID:
- 22278086
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, Issue 6; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ANNEALING
BARIUM COMPOUNDS
COUPLING
CRYSTAL GROWTH
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY
INTERFACES
IRON
MAGNETIC PROPERTIES
MOLECULAR BEAM EPITAXY
PHOTOEMISSION
STRONTIUM TITANATES
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K
THIN FILMS
X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY