EPITAXIAL-GROWTH OF AND SILICIDE FORMATION IN FE FESI MULTILAYERS/

The structural properties of multilayers consisting of Fe layers separ ated by Si or FeSi layers grown with molecular beam epitaxy on MgO(001 ) and Si(lll) are reported. Rutherford backscattering and ion channeli ng are used to determine the crystallinity of the layers. We find evid ence for epitaxy, alloying effects, and structural coherence. Conversi on electron Mossbauer spectroscopy is utilized to investigate the sili cide formation in the spacer layer of Fe/FeSi multilayers and at the i nterface of Fe/Si layers. The silicide formed in Fe/FeSi multilayers i s characterized by a broad single line Mossbauer resonance which is ch aracteristic for the metastable CsCl-FeSi phase. For Fe/Si multilayers the Mossbauer results indicate that FeSi compounds with clearly other hyperfine parameters than the CsCl phase are formed in the spacer. (C ) 1997 American Institute of Physics.