Investigation of ultrathin iron and iron nickel layers prepared from Langmuir-Blodgett films

Oxidic and metallic iron and iron/nickel multilayers, formed after thermal and chemical treatment of Langmuir-Blodgett films, were investigated. Reduced iron-stearate multilayers were compared with evaporated films concerning their phase composition and their lateral homogeneity. The sequence of metallic and oxidic iron in the films after reduction was determined. Oxidic iron/nickel mixed layers can be prepared from Langmuir-Blodgett films, in which a magnetically non-ordered Fe3+ phase exhibiting a distribution of the quadrupole splitting is observed. After reduction of such layers, two metallic iron phases appear dependent on the nickel concentration. The hyperfine field distribution of the magnetically ordered metallic phase can be evaluated using a method proposed by Rancourt.