Epitaxial growth of bcc Fe films on Al(1 0 0) surfaces using Ti as an interface stabilizer

An approach is described to promote epitaxial growth of thin metal films on single-crystal metal substrates by stabilizing the interface with an extremely thin metallic interlayer. A single atomic layer of a metal is deposited at the interface, Ti on Al(1 0 0) in this case, prior to the growth of the metal film of interest to produce an epitaxial interface in a system that is otherwise characterized by interdiffusion and disorder. The stabilized interface reduces interdiffusion and serves as a template for ordered film growth. Using Rutherford backscattering and channeling techniques along with low-energy electron diffraction and low-energy He+ scattering, it is demonstrated that an atomically thin layer of Ti metal deposited at the Fe–Al interface, a system well known for considerable intermixing at room temperature, reduces interdiffusion and promotes the epitaxial growth of Fe films on the Al(1 0 0) surface. The decrease in ion scattering yield for Al atoms, Fe–Fe shadowing and long-range order of the surface suggest that the epitaxial growth of Fe is greatly improved when the Ti interlayer is introduced prior to Fe deposition. Off-normal ion channeling experiments provide clear evidence for the bcc structure of Fe on the Ti/Al(1 0 0) template with the measured average (1 0 0) interplanar distance of 1.44 Å in the Fe overlayer.