Asymmetric interfaces in Fe/Ag and Ag/Fe bilayers prepared by molecular beam evaporation

Structural characterization of Fe/Ag bilayers by RBS and AFM

“…4. The polycrystalline Si/Fe/Ag RT sample -similarly to our previous measurements [11] -shows a small Ag tail at low energies. In the case of the epitaxial MgO/Fe/Ag RT sample the lowenergy tail is missing.…”

“…In case of the polycrystalline Si/Fe/Ag RT sample, the Ag tail cannot be explained by the surface roughness, as we have shown this already in [11]. The Ag tail was very small or missing in the case of the epitaxial MgO/Fe/Ag RT (see Figs.…”

“…An asymmetry was found also in [10], but it was explained with ion-implantation during the growing process. In our previous paper [11] also a deposition-order dependent asymmetric interface was found, however, our results indicated a reverse behaviour in the cases mentioned above. When Fe was grown on Ag, the interface was sharp, while the growth of Ag on Fe resulted in a long, low-energy tail of the Ag peak in the RBS spectra.…”