Growth and structure of ultrathin Mn films on Fe(001)

Growth of ultra-thin films of Mn on Fe(001) has been studied by grazing ion-surface scattering and Auger electron spectroscopy. We find that growth is epitaxial and pseudomorph and starts in a layer-by-layer mode. Favorable growth temperature is about 570 K; lower temperatures lead to kinetic roughening. After four layers, the growth mode changes from layer (two-dimensional) to island (three-dimensional) growth for temperatures above about 420 K. Below this temperature, a (metastable) layer-by-layer growth is observed. A quantitative analysis of the data yields the nucleation length in two-dimensional growth and the three-dimensional island density for the different growth temperatures.