Formation of linearly linked Fe clusters on Si(111)-7 × 7-C2H5OH surface

Wanyu Ding; Dongying Ju; Yuanyuan Guo; Ken-Ichi Tanaka; Fumio Komori

doi:10.1186/1556-276X-9-377

Formation of linearly linked Fe clusters on Si(111)-7 × 7-C2H5OH surface

Nanoscale Res Lett. 2014 Aug 3;9(1):377. doi: 10.1186/1556-276X-9-377. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Wanyu Ding¹, Dongying Ju², Yuanyuan Guo², Ken-Ichi Tanaka³, Fumio Komori⁴

Affiliations

¹ Advance Science Center of Saitama Institute of Technology, Fukaya 369-0293, Japan ; School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dalian Jiaotong University, Dalian 116028, China.
² Advance Science Center of Saitama Institute of Technology, Fukaya 369-0293, Japan ; School of Material Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Liaoning, Anshan 114051, China.
³ School of Material Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Liaoning, Anshan 114051, China.
⁴ Institute for Solid State Physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Chiba 277-8581, Japan.

Abstract

The Fe atoms were deposited on the Si(111)-7 × 7 surface, which has been saturated with the C2H5OH molecules. Then, the Fe clusters were formed on Si(111)-7 × 7-C2H5OH surface and in situ observed by the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The STM images showed that with the increase of Fe clusters, the size of clusters was about 5 nm and they self-assembled in straightly linked chain crossing the step to lower or upper terrace. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was in situ carried out on the surface of Fe/Si(111)-7 × 7-C2H5OH samples before and after the introduction of thin air (4.5 × 10(-2) Langmuir) into the STM chamber. The XPS results showed that the Fe clusters are stable in the abovementioned thin air condition at room temperature. Based on the STM and XPS results, the driving force making one-dimensional straightly linked chain structure might be the magnetic force of the Fe clusters. The formation of straightly linked Fe clusters chains suggests the formation of single magnetic domain Fe clusters.

Pacs: 07.79.Cz, 81.15.-z, 75.75.Fk.

Keywords: Fe clusters; STM; Single magnetic domain.