Structure and morphology of epitaxially grown Fe3O4/NiO bilayers on MgO(001)

Crystalline Fe3O4/NiO bilayers were grown on MgO(001) substrates using reactive molecular beam epitaxy to investigate their structural properties and their morphology. The film thickness either of the Fe3O4 film or of the NiO film has been varied to shed light on the relaxation of the bilayer system. The surface properties as studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and low energy electron diffraction show clear evidence of stoichiometric well-ordered film surfaces. Based on the kinematic approach X-ray diffraction experiments were completely analyzed. As a result the NiO films grow pseudomorphic in the investigated thickness range (up to 34 nm) while the Fe3O4 films relax continuously up to the thickness of 50 nm. Although all diffraction data show well developed Laue fringes pointing to oxide films of very homogeneous thickness, the Fe3O4/NiO interface roughens continuously up to 1 nm root-mean-square roughness with increasing NiO film thickness while the Fe3O4 surface is very smooth independent on the Fe3O4 film thickness. Finally, the Fe3O4/NiO interface spacing is similar to the interlayer spacing of the oxide films while the NiO/MgO interface is expanded.