The interfacial and surface properties of thin Fe and Gd films grown on W(110) as studied by scanning tunneling microscopy, site-resolved photoelectron diffraction, and spin polarized photoelectron diffraction

Combined scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and low energy electron diffraction (LEED) measurements from Gd films grown on W(110) prepared with and without annealing have been used to provide a detailed picture of the growth of such films, permitting a quantitative structural explanation for previously-measured magnetic properties and the identification of a new two-dimensional structure for the first monolayer. The analysis of the film roughness of room-temperature-grown films as a function of coverage and lateral length scale reveals that the growing Gd surface follows scaling laws for a self-affine surface. Annealing these as-deposited films at elevated temperatures is found to drastically alter the morphology of the films, as seen by both STM and LEED. Nanometer-scale islands of relatively well-defined size and shape are observed under certain conditions. Finally, the first monolayer of Gd is observed to form a (7x14) superstructure with pseudo-(7x7) symmetry that is consistent with a minimally-distorted hexagonal two-dimensional Gd(0001) film. Furthermore, a new beamline and photoelectron spectrometer/diffractometer at the Advanced Light Source have been used to obtain full-solid-angle and site-specific photoelectron diffraction (PD) data from interface W atoms just beneath (1x1) Fe and (7x14) Gd monolayers on W(110) by utilizing the core level shift in the W 4f{sub 7/2} spectrum. A comparison of experiment with multiple scattering calculations permits determining the Fe adsorption site and the relative interlayer spacing to the first and second W layers. These Fe results are also compared to those from the very different Gd overlayer and from the clean W(110) surface. Such interface PD measurements show considerable promise for future studies. Finally, the rare-earth ferromagnetic system of Gd(0001) has been examined through the use of spin polarized photoelectron diffraction from the Gd 4s and 5s photoelectron multiplets