Preparation of ultrathin ferric oxide layers using Langmuir-Blodgett films

Ultrathin ferric oxide films (10(15) Fe ions cm(-2)) were prepared from Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of Fe arachidate. The LB films were heated for this purpose to a temperature of 300 degrees C. It turns out that the Fe ions remain quantitatively at the substrate during the heating procedure and that a linear dependence exists between the Fe area density in the ferric oxide film and the number of Fe arachidate monolayers. The homogeneity of the ferric oxide films was found not to be satisfactory if LB films with a small number of monolayers are used. The homogeneity increases with increasing number of monolayers. The analysis of the films was performed with mass spectrometric methods, Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy and electron microscopy.