Growth-mode and interface structure of epitaxial ultrathin MgO/Ag(001) films

MgO ultrathin films are of great technological importance as electron tunneling barrier in electronics and spintronics, template for metallic clusters catalysis molecular networks 2D electronics. The wide band-gap allows a very effective decoupling from the substrate. morphology detailed structure interface crucial applications, controlling electronic transfer. Using surface x-ray diffraction, we studied growth-mode MgO/Ag(001) elaborated by reactive beam epitaxy function substrate temperature. We observed that deposition about 1 monolayer results an MgO(001) film coherent epitaxy, with oxygen atoms on top silver predicted DFT calculations, interlayer distance at 270 pm. Under well-defined conditions, sharp bilayer is formed covering fraction surface.