Depth profile of iron in a CaB6 crystal -: art. no. 172410

Scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and depth profiling with Auger electron spectroscopy were used to characterize surface iron present on a CaB6 single crystal. The crystal was grown by the aluminum flux method and displayed ferromagnetism at 300 K. For similarly prepared samples, treatment with hydrochloric acid eliminated the ferromagnetism. In previous work it was speculated that the iron is deposited onto the CaB6 surface during flux removal. The Auger depth profiles presented here reveals that the iron is indeed concentrated in the surface region.