).
We report the observation of bcc-like crystal structures in 2-4 monolayer Fe films grown on fcc Cu(100) using scanning tunneling microscopy. The local bcc structure provides a straightforward explanation for their frequently reported outstanding magnetic properties, i.e., ferromagnetic ordering in all layers with a Curie temperature above 300 K. The non-pseudomorphic structure, which becomes pseudomorphic above 4 ML film thickness, is unexpected in terms of conventional rules of thin film growth and stresses the importance of finite thickness effects in ferromagnetic ultrathin films.
Corresponding author: M. Schmid (schmid).
Users with online access to Phys. Rev. Lett. can load the article from the publisher.
A preprint is available at arXiv.org.