Effect of Bi surfactant on the heteroepitaxial growth in Fe/Cr(100) multilayers

This study was to investigate the surfactant effect of Bi on the heteroepitaxial growth of Fe/Cr(100) multilayers by reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) measurements. With predeposition of submonolayer Bi on Fe(100) prior to evaporation of Fe/Cr multilayer, more long-lasting RHEED intensity oscillations were observed. This implies that the layer-by-layer growth of Fe/Cr multilayer is enhanced. The observations of grazing incidence X-ray reflectivity confirmed that the interface structures of Fe/Cr multilayer with Bi were sharper than that of multilayer without Bi. The study was also to investigate the magnetotransport properties between Bi surfactant-mediated multilayers and normal ones. The magnetoresistance (MR) ratio of the multilayers was enhanced by predeposition of Bi.