Microstructural and atomic arrangement studies in Fe (110)/GaAs (110) heterostructures Original Research Article

Ion-beam-assisted deposition of Fe on p-GaAs (110) at room temperature was performed in order to produce Fe epitaxial films with high quality and Fe/p-GaAs (110) heterostructures with abrupt heterointerfaces. Atomic force microscopy images showed that the root mean square of the average surface roughness of the Fe film was 5.33 Å, and X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements showed that the Fe film layers grown on the GaAs (110) substrates were epitaxial films with (110) orientations. Auger electron spectroscopy and TEM measurements showed that the Fe epitaxial films grown on the p-GaAs (110) substrates at room temperature had no significant interdiffusion problems. Based on the experimental results, a possible atomic arrangement of the two unit cells is presented for the Fe (110)/GaAs (110) heterostructure. These results indicate that the Fe epitaxial films grown on p-GaAs (110) substrates at room temperature can be used for GaAs-based metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors and that the Fe/GaAs heterostructures provide motivation to pursue the fabrication of Fe/GaAs superlattices.