The influence of substrate temperatures on the structure, morphology, magne
tic properties, and surface composition of MnSb films prepared by hot-wall
epitaxy are analyzed. All the films are found to be single phase with nicke
l arsenide (NiAs) crystal structure. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study
on the core levels reveals that the surface oxidation of the films is not
very much enhanced with increasing substrate temperature except for a varia
tion in the concentration of Sb2O3 and MnO2 near the surface-air interface.
The decrease in saturation magnetization for the films is attributed to an
increase in the manganese oxide content as substrate temperature increases
. It is also observed that preferential Mn segregation from the grains to t
he grain boundaries will reduce the magnetic coupling between grains and th
us increase coercivity and decrease coercivity squareness. (C) 1999 America
n Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)09209-9].