The early stages of AlF3 on Cu(100) growth: An STM study

J. C. MORENO-LÓPEZ; R. A. VIDAL; M.C.G. PASSEGGI (JR.); J. FERRÓN

Puerto Iguazú

Simposio; XIX Latin American Symposium on Solid State Physics; 2008

The growth of ionic insulators films on metal surfaces is a topic that has attracted widespread interest in recent years due to possible applications in MIM (metal-insulator-metal) devices. Insulated material films are also one of the main constituents of magnetic-tunnel junctions, and metallic oxides and °uorides are possible candidates to be used on them. On the other hand, it is well known that metallic °uoride (AlF3) is a promising material to be used as inorganic resist for nanometer-scale patterning in electron beam lithography due to that under electron irradiation show radiolysis, i.e. the desorption of the °uoride with the formation of an aluminium metallic layer. With these important possible applications in mind, in this work we report the initial stages of AlF3 growth on Cu(100) by means of scanning tunneling microscopy in ultra high vacuum conditions. We will study the morphology and the growing mechanism as a function of coverage, and temperature effects during the growth and post-annealing of the fluorides.