Properties of Fe(001) single-crystal films grown by sputter beam method

Fe(001) single-crystal films were grown on GaAs(001) substrates by the sputter beam (SB) method. Under the optimum etching condition of GaAs substrates, roughness of the film surfaces observed by atomic force microscope (AFM) can be reduced appreciably, and very flat surfaces can be obtained. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) gave little evidence of interfacial diffusion between the film and the substrate. X-ray diffraction patterns of the films indicate well-oriented crystal structures, that is, the half-width values of the rocking curve of the Fe(002) reflection are nearly equal to that of the (004) reflection from the GaAs substrates. Furthermore, enhanced growth of single-crystal films was also confirmed by the fact that the linewidth of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectra is equal to that of the single-crystal films formed by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). These results indicate that the SB method has some advantages as a method of single-crystal film synthesis.