Medium energy ion scattering studies of ultrathin epitaxial films
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Abstract
Medium energy ion scattering (MEIS) has been used to investigate ultrathin
epitaxial films.
The depth profiles of V2O3(0001) films grown on Pd(111) were examined. The
results from this demonstrated that on this substrate the films grown are highly
non-uniform, with a large distribution of thicknesses observed for each prepared
sample. V2O3(0001) films grown on Au(111) were found to form films with a
much more even range of thicknesses, good enough to yield blocking curves. The
experimental blocking curves obtained are not in good agreement with half-metal
or vanadyl terminated structures favoured by most previous studies. Assuming that
imperfections exist in the grown films produced better fits, however this lost surface
sensitivity. The optimal structure found is an oxygen termination, proposed by a
previous density functional theory (DFT) study. This structure is also found to be
consistent with re-examined photoelectron diffraction (PhD) data.
Ag2S films grown on Ag(111) were found to suffer severely from beam-induced
damage, limiting quantity of obtained data. Unusually, an He+ beam was found
to produce less severe effects than an H+ beam. Energy cuts were used to confirm,
as proposed by an early Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) study, that the silver
sulphide thickness continues to increase with increasing sulphur deposition onto
Ag(111). The backscattered ion yields of the blocking curves increased with
increasing film thickness, and no additional blocking features were present. These
curves were found to be consistent with the structural model proposed by a previous
normal incidence X-ray standing waves (NIXSW) study.
p2gg(4 × 2)Mn/Cu(100) films were found to form with thicknesses far greater than
the two layers anticipated by previous studies. The thick disordered layer precluded
any structural analysis. The copper and manganese peaks could not be resolved,
resulting in the only information obtained being about the thickness of the films