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Motivated by ferromagnetic semiconductors and ferromagnet-semiconductor structures, atomic kinetics of manganese growth on Ge(100)-(2x1) surface was studied by means of the various surface sensitive techniques including STM. When ~ 1 monolayer manganese was deposited at room temperature, they form mound structures without any noticeable atomic order. The as-deposited manganese layers were annealed at 350 ~ 600°C, resulting in three-dimensional islands structures of Volmer-Weber type. Two types of islands were observed in STM and AFM images. The crystallography and composition of the islands were studied with ex-situ x-ray diffraction and x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. It is believed that the islands are the alloy of Mn and Ge. The atomic structures, growth mechanism, and magnetic property of the alloy will be discussed. |