Mössbauer-Effect Study of Metastable c-FeSi Synthesized by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) and by Ion Implantation

Abstract

Conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) has been applied to the study of the metastable c-FeSi phase (i.e. an iron silicide with CsCl lattice structure) that was synthesized by implantation of Si + ions of 50 keV in energy into f -Fe (95% 57 Fe) near room temperature with a nominal dose of 5 2 10 17 cm m 2 , and by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Iron silicide layers with different stoichiometry (FeSi 0.85 , FeSi, Fe 0.85 Si) were grown by codeposition of 57 Fe and Si onto an Fe buffer layer on MgO(100). For all FeSi layers the defective CsCl structure was observed after annealing at different temperatures. X-ray diffraction measurements were performed to determine the structure and epitaxial relationship of the c-FeSi films. The lattice parameter perpendicular to the film plane was found to be 2.77(5) Å. CEMS measurements revealed a lower than cubic site symmetry of the iron atoms for both the c-FeSi layers synthesized by ion implantation and by MBE. The formation of nearly undistorted c-FeSi after annealing is favored by excess Fe atoms in the deposited film.

Keywords:

• Metastable Iron Silicides
• Mössbauer Spectroscopy
• X-ray Diffraction
• Molecular Beam Epitaxy
• Ion Implantation