Abstract
Employing transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive
X-ray analysis (EDX) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) we
have studied tantalum clusters on a thin Al2O3 film epitaxially grown
on NiAl(110). Our data reveal that the clusters are three dimensional,
growing epitaxially on the oxide film with their 110 directions
parallel to the surface normal and Ta001||NiAl001. From the observed
moir� fringes the tantalum lattice constant could be determined as
a function of the cluster size. We found that the lattice constant
decreases with decreasing cluster size with the highest observed
reduction being 4.5% for a cluster with a diameter of 12.5��. Interestingly
the clusters are only partly oxidized as concluded from XPS, TEM
and EDX data although the samples were exposed to air after cluster
deposition.
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