PREPARATION OF ULTRATHIN FERRIC-OXIDE LAYERS USING LANGMUIR-BLODGETT-FILMS

Ultrathin ferric oxide films (10(15) Fe ions cm(-2)) were prepared fro m Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of Fe arachidate. The LB films were hea ted for this purpose to a temperature of 300 degrees C. It turns out t hat the Fe ions remain quantitatively at the substrate during the heat ing procedure and that a linear dependence exists between the Fe area density in the ferric oxide film and the number of Fe arachidate monol ayers. The homogeneity of the ferric oxide films was found not to be s atisfactory if LB films with a small number of monolayers are used. Th e homogeneity increases with increasing number of monolayers. The anal ysis of the films was performed with mass spectrometric methods, Ruthe rford backscattering spectroscopy and electron microscopy.