화학공학소재연구정보센터
Applied Surface Science, Vol.177, No.4, 287-291, 2001
Epitaxial growth of NiO layers on MgO(001) and MgO(110)
About 33 nm thick NiO layers have been epitaxially grown on MgO substrate at 900 degreesC. Investigations by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) give evidence for a close relationship between surface morphology and substrate orientation. Deposited on MgO(0 0 1) surface, the NiO layer grows layer by layer leading to a flat NiO(0 0 1) surface. On the contrary, the surface of the NiO layers grown on MgO(l 1 0) has a roof-like morphology consisting of (I 0 0) and (0 1 0) facets elongated along the [0 0 1] direction. This particular surface configuration comes from a mechanism of surface energy relaxation during the growth process.