Growth and Magnetic Properties of Epitaxial Fe(100) on S-Passivated GaAs(100)

This paper proposes a new technique for the epitaxial growth of Fe on GaAs(100) which eliminates the problems of substrate interdiffusion through the overlayer. S-passivation of the GaAs(100) surface prior to Fe overgrowth is shown to be an effective way of inhibiting the interdiffusion of As and Ga into the Fe overlayer. The resulting Fe layer is found to grow in a bcc (100) orientation and is ferromagnetic for coverages >4 monolayers.