Iron Oxide Thin Film Growth On Ag(100)
Abstract: This thesis presents a study of iron oxide thin films, grown on a silver metal substrate, with the goal of characterizing the structures that form during growth of the first atomic layers. Such ultra-thin iron oxides are interesting model materials for fundamental surface chemistry and catalysis studies. The films were grown by reactive deposition of iron under ultra-high vacuum conditions and characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), carried out at beamline I311 of the MAX IV laboratory, as well as scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), carried out in the Division of Synchrotron Radiation Research. The aim of this project was to study the chemical composition and atomic scale structure of the oxide films. We find that there are different iron oxide phases on the Ag(100) surface that depending on the growth conditions. These can be described as 1) monolayer FeO(111) with FeO(100)-like grain boundaries, 2) a mixed FeO(111) and FeO(100) structure with FeO(100) grains party embedded in the surface, and 3) a hexagonal multilayer structure with a buckled top layer, observed under oxygen-rich conditions and attributed to Fe2O3. These results are important as they will form the basis for futher studies of FeO surface chemistry and catalysis using these films as well-defined model systems.
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