Growth mechanism and epitaxy of ultra-thin cobalt films on Pd(001)

Abstract Cobalt was vapor deposited in vacuum on the clean Pd(001) surface. The growth mode and the structure of the overlayer were studied by low energy He + ion scattering (LEIS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray photoelectron diffraction (XPD). By examining the dependency of the LEIS signal as a function of the XPS one for various amounts of deposit it is possible to conclude that cobalt forms multi atomic layer islands. XPD shows that the cobalt structure is fcc with the (001) plane parallel to the substrate surface.