Coherent Layered Structures in Fe/Au Monatomic Multilayers with Addition of Fractional Atomic Layers

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Abstract
Fractional numbers of atomic layers have been introduced intentionally into Fe/Au monatomic multilayers in order to investigate the effect of the deviation from monatomic layer thickness on the layered structure. We prepared [ Fe(1+δ ML)/Au(1+δ ML)] multilayers with the fraction δ=0, 0.25 and 0.5, where ML represents monatomic layer thickness. The superlattice (001) peak associated with the L10 ordered structure is observed in the X-ray diffraction profile for δ=0. For δ=0.25 and 0.5, on the other hand, the superlattice (001) peak is split into a couple of sharp peaks. The appearance of those two peaks indicates the formation of coherent layered structure with long-range periodicity, even for samples with fractional atomic layers.