Surface characterization of Al–Cu–Fe thin films by scanning tunneling microscopy and scanning tunneling spectroscopy

Thin films of disordered Al63Cu25Fe12 alloy have been prepared by thermal evaporation and characterized using d.c. electrical resistivity and scanning tunneling microscopic STM.and spectroscopic STS.measurements. The local microscopic and spectroscopic data suggest that the samples comprise of at least two different regions, one with a metal like density of states while the other having a clear gap like feature at the Fermi level in the density of states spectrum. The results may be attributed to the presence of chemical and topological disorders present in the sample. q1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.