Compositional stability of FePt nanoparticles on SiO2/Si during annealing

The loss of Fe due to oxidation or diffusion into the substrate can prevent the successful preparation of well-ordered, stoichiometric, FePt nanoparticles. In this work we report the composition changes during annealing observed for small ( \u3c 10 nm) FePt nanoparticles on thermally grown SiO2 layers on Si wafer substrates. Additionally, we describe the use of a controlled reducing gas mixture, Ar+H-2+H2O, to reduce the loss of Fe