Atomically Resolved Observations of Antiphase Domain Boundaries in Epitaxial Fe3O4 Films on MgO(001) by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

, , , , and

Published 20 August 2012 • Copyright (c) 2012 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
, , Citation Akira Ikeuchi et al 2012 Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 51 08KB02 DOI 10.1143/JJAP.51.08KB02

Download Article PDF

Article metrics

109 Total downloads

Share this article

Author affiliations

1 Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0814, Japan

Dates

  1. Received 15 January 2012
  2. Accepted 3 April 2012
  3. Published

Buy this article in print

Journal RSS
Sign up for new issue notifications
1347-4065/51/8S3/08KB02

Abstract

We have studied the surface atomic configurations around antiphase domain boundaries (APBs) in epitaxial magnetite (Fe3O4) thin films on MgO(001) by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The observed surface of the Fe3O4 films is the B-plane terminating surface with the (√2×√2)R45° reconstruction. Several variations of APBs are observed by STM at atomic resolution. The observed APBs are categorized into a APBs labeled by three different phase shift vectors: in-plane 1/4[110], in-plane 1/2[100], and out-of-plane 1/4[101]. We discussed how these APBs appear on the surface. The proportions of the APBs with 1/4[110], 1/2[100], and 1/4[101] shifts are about 38, 1, and 61%, respectively, in our experiment.

Export citation and abstract BibTeX RIS

Previous article in issue
Next article in issue
10.1143/JJAP.51.08KB02