Eur. Phys. J. B 15, 41-50 (2000)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510051098

Evidence of bcc Mn epitaxial growth in Mn/M_xV_1-x(001) (M = Fe, Nb) superlattices

¹ Laboratoire de Physique des Matériaux, CNRS/Université Nancy I, BP 239, 54506 Vandœuvre-les-Nancy Cedex, France
² CEMES/LOE, CNRS, BP 4347, 31055 Toulouse, France
³ LURE, CNRS/CEA/Université Paris-Sud, BP 34, 91898 Orsay, France

Received: 21 June 1999
Published online: 15 May 2000

Abstract

This study is dedicated to the growth of bcc Mn by molecular beam epitaxy, in order to look at the magnetic properties of bcc Mn near room temperature. For this purpose, Mn is deposited on bcc M_xV(001) alloy lattices (M = Fe or Nb) for which the lattice spacing is tunable by varying the concentration x. We first show that the parameter of the M_xV alloy's buffer layers can be adjusted from 2.95 Å to 3.3 Ådepending on x and M. Three different structures in Mn films grown on these buffer layers are observed depending on the in-plane spacing of the initial M_xV lattice. Thick Mn films are always found to grow epitaxially in the Mnα structure. For moderate thicknesses larger than 4 atomic planes, Mn grows in an unidentified structure. Finally, up to four deposited atomic planes, Mn is found to grow in a tetragonal structure close to a bcc one on Fe(001), Fe_xV(001) and Nb_xV(001) for . This tetragonal structure is shown to be a distorsion of a Mn bcc structure with . Except for ultra-thin Mn films deposited on Fe(001), no macroscopic magnetization is detected in our strained bcc Mn samples. These results are compared to theoretical predictions.