Atomic structure of Mn-rich nanocolumns probed by x-ray absorption spectroscopy

In this letter, we have used the extended x-ray-absorption fine-structure (EXAFS) technique to investigate the structure of Mn-rich self-organized nanocolumns grown by low temperature molecular beam epitaxy. The EXAFS analysis has shown that Mn-rich nanocolumns exhibit a complex local structure that cannot be described by a simple substitutional model. Additional interatomic distances had to be considered in the EXAFS model which are in excellent agreement with the structure of a Ge-3Mn building block tetrahedron of Ge3Mn5. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.