Growth and magnetism of iron oxides on Ru(0001) | Juan de la Figuera (Instituto de Quimica Fisica "Rocasolano")

Growth and magnetism of iron oxides on Ru(0001)

Magnetite is the most strongly magnetized material found in nature. A revival of interest in magnetite for spintronic applications has been spurred by its multiferroic and half-metal character, together with its high Curie temperature. Magnetite has been grown on several metal substrates substrates, such as Pt(111) or Ru(0001). In the first stage, a FeO wetting layer is grown, and only on a second stage magnetite islands nucleate. In this work we present our observations of the growth of iron oxide on Ru by oxygen assisted MBE [1-3], by a combination of traditional surface science techniques (STM, XPS, LEED) together with low-energy electron-based microscopies (low energy electron microscopy, spin-polarized low-energy electron microscopy and photoemission electron microscopy). In the latter case the surface morphology can be followed in real time during the growth. Finally, by using multiple angle x-ray magnetic circular dichroism, we show how we can measure the vector magnetization for the magnetite islands [4].

[1] B. Santos et al., J. Phys. Cond. Matt., 21 (2009) 314011.
[2] M. Monti, et al., Phys. Rev. B 85 (2012) 020404R.
[3] I. Palacio et al, J. Phys. Cond. Matt. 25, (2013) 484001
[4] S. Ruiz-Gomez et al., Nanoscale 10 (2018) 5566