Epitaxial layers of nickel fluoride on Si(111): Growth and stabilization of the orthorhombic phase

• Published in: Physics of the solid state 2015-08, Vol.57 (8), p.1647-1652
• Main Authors: Banshchikov, A. G., Golosovskii, I. V., Krupin, A. V., Koshmak, K. V., Sokolov, N. S., Chernenkov, Yu. P., Yagovkina, M. A., Ulin, V. P., Tabuchi, M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Crystals; Diffraction; Epitaxy; Low-Dimensional Systems; Nickel; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Solid State Physics; Structure; X-rays
• ISSN: 1063-7834; 1090-6460
• DOI: 10.1134/S106378341508003X

The growth and crystal structure of NiF 2 layers on CaF 2 /Si(111) heteroepitaxial substrates have been investigated. It has been shown that molecular beam epitaxy at temperatures of 350–450°C provides a stable epitaxial growth of the metastable orthorhombic NiF 2 phase (structural type CaCl 2 ) with a nickel fluoride layer thickness up to 1 μm in the metastable phase. According to X-ray diffraction, the unit cell parameters in layers of orthorhombic nickel fluoride are a = 4.5680(1) Å, b = 4.7566(3) Å, and c = 3.0505(2) Å, which are very close to the known values for this phase. It has been established that the condition holds over a wide range of growth parameters, which agrees with the results of the qualitative crystallographic analysis of the elements of similarity of the structures under consideration. The formation of a domain texture, the character of which depends on the growth temperature and nickel fluoride layer thickness, has been observed in the heterojunction plane.