Study of high-temperature oxidation of ultrathin fe films on Pt(100) by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

High-temperature oxidation of iron thin films deposited on Pt(100) surfaces was studied by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Upon an oxygen exposure of 300 Langmuir onto a 7.5- monolayer (ML) Fe film at 830 K, about 2 monolayers of the Fe film were oxidized as Fe3O4 while the remaining Fe atoms diffused into the substrate. For 1.25-, 2.5-, and 3.75-monolayer Fe films, only about a monolayer of the Fe film was oxidized as FeO, regardless of the number of Fe atoms. The oxide layers on the 7.5-monolayer Fe film were observed to be stable upon post-annealing at 1030 K