Eur. Phys. J. B (2013) 86: 222
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2013-30675-5

Regular Article

Formation of bcc-Ni thin film on GaAs(100) substrate and phase transformation from bcc to fcc^*

¹ Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University, Bunkyo-ku, 112-8551 Tokyo, Japan
² Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yamagata University, 992-8510 Yonezawa, Japan

^a e-mail: ohtake@futamoto.elect.chuo-u.ac.jp

Received: 24 July 2012
Received in final form: 3 March 2013
Published online: 20 May 2013

Abstract

Ni thin films are prepared on GaAs(100) single-crystal substrates at room temperature by using an ultra-high vacuum radio-frequency magnetron sputtering system. The growth behavior and the crystallographic properties are studied by in-situ refection highenergy electron diffraction and pole-figure X-ray diffraction. In an early stage of film growth, a metastable bcc-Ni(100) single-crystal film is formed on GaAs(100) substrate, where the bcc structure is stabilized through hetero-epitaxial growth. With increasing the film thickness, fcc crystals coexist with the bcc(100) crystal. High-resolution cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy shows that the film consists of a mixture of bcc and fcc crystals and that a large number of planar faults exist parallel to the fcc(111) close-packed plane. The results indicate that the bcc structure starts to transform into fcc structure through atomic displacement parallel to the bcc{110} close-packed planes.