PREPARATION AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF CO AU(001) SUPERLATTICES/

By means of an electron beam deposition technique under ultrahigh vacu um, Co/Au(001) superlattices were prepared on GaAs(001) substrates wit h a 500 angstrom thick Au(001) buffer layer. The superlattices were ch aracterized by reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED), an d x-ray diffraction. We found that well defined single-crystalline Co/ Au(001) superlattices can be obtained only for samples with Co layer t hickness below about 10 angstrom. The results from x-my diffraction me asurements indicate a slightly trained BCC structure for Co layers wit h the lattice constants a(parallel-to) = 2.88 +/- 0,01 angstrom in the film plane and a(perpendicular-to) = 2.78 +/- 0.02 angstrom along the growth direction.