Growth, structure and epitaxy of ultrathin NiO films on Ag(001)

NiO ultrathin films have been grown on Ag(001) by Ni deposition in an O-2 atmosphere. The thickness range 5-50 NIL has been investigated. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has been used to study the stoichiometric composition and chemical purity of the oxide films. We found completely oxidized stoichiometric NiO films. Their contamination has been found to be limited to the topmost layers. Photoelectron diffraction has given information concerning the local crystal structure of the films. The film atomic geometry has been found to be the same independent of thickness in the 0-50 ML range. The films have the expected (001) rock-salt structure with the same in plane orientation as the Ag(001) substrate. Specular X-ray reflectivity has allowed a very accurate thickness evaluation and has given information on the width of the density gradients at the film-substrate and vacuum-film interfaces, found to be of the order of a few atomic layers.