Iron epitaxial electrodeposition on Au(111) substrates is investigated using in situ scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and ex situ X-ray diffraction (XRD). STM observations show that Fe grows quasi layer-by-layer at sufficiently negative potentials. XRD results indicate that Fe layers thicker than 3 ML are bcc and present the epitaxial relationship Fe(110) [1−10]||Au(111) [11−2]. They also show that the Fe lattice is uniaxially in-plane strained along Fe[1−10] and that the strain is progressively relieved with increasing layer thickness. The growth of Fe on a Ni layer deposited on Au(111) leads to strain free Fe layers with the same epitaxial relationship. The specific shape of Fe of monatomic islands suggests that the first Fe monolayer deposited on Au(111) presents a centered rectangular lattice similar to that of bcc Fe(110) but is stretched along Fe[1−10] by more than 8%.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.