EPITAXY OF CUBIC IRON SILICIDES ON SI(111)

Recently, new pseudomorphic iron silicide phases with the cubic structure have been synthesized on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) at room temperature (RT). The interface between the pseudomorphic phases and Si(111) is energetically very favourable compared to stable epsilon-FeSi/Si(111) or stable beta-FeSi2/Si(111) interfaces. It enables the epitaxy of various phases which are structurally similar, like Fe3Si and even pure bcc iron at room temperature. The orientation was found to be always pinned to the type B orientation of the interface. On Fe3Si a new root 3 X root 3 R30 degrees surface reconstruction was observed.