J. Camarero et al., SURFACTANT-INDUCED SUPPRESSION OF TWIN FORMATION DURING GROWTH OF FCCCO CU SUPERLATTICES ON CU(111)/, Physical review letters, 73(18), 1994, pp. 2448-2451
Cu/Co bilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Cu(111) present a pe
culiar defect: the Cu layers display a large fraction of fee twins, gi
ving rise to a lack of lateral continuity in the film and causing dire
ct ferromagnetic coupling in Co/Cu superlattices. We show how the form
ation of twins in the epitaxial Cu layers can be suppressed by precove
ring the clean Cu(111) surface with a monolayer of Pb that floats at t
he surface of the growing film. The use of this surfactant results in
a highly improved structural quality of Co/Cu superlattices.