La 0.6 Sr 0.4 MnO 3 thin films were fabricated on SrTiO3 (001) substrates using pulsed laser deposition with observing persistent intensity oscillation of reflection high-energy electron diffraction. By atomic force microscopy, the surface of resulting films was confirmed to be extremely flat, showing atomically smooth terraces and 0.4 nm high steps corresponding to a unit cell height of perovskite. The surface terminating atomic layer was unambiguously assigned to the MnO2 layer by coaxial impact collision ion scattering spectroscopy. Crystal symmetry of the films is distorted into a tetragonal one due to the strain to fulfill perfect in-plane matching with the substrate even for films as thick as 100 nm. Even for films as thin as 4 nm (10 unit cells), ferromagnetic transition takes place to induce a metallic state and large negative magnetoresistance is observed as well.

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Terminating structures of the GaN{0001} films grown on nitrided sapphire(0001) substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) have been investigated by coaxial impact collision ion scattering spectroscopy (CAICISS). The analyses of incidence angle dependences of time of flight (TOF) spectra have shown that the surfaces of GaN films grown under both N-rich and Ga-rich conditions are (0001) N-planes terminated with Ga atoms. This implies that (0001), N-terminated surfaces of GaN films grown under these conditions are unstable and a Ga-rich condition is required to avoid the N-deficiency in the grown GaN film.