A revisit to ultrathin NiO(001) film: LEED and valence band photoemission studies

LEED and photoemission measurements have been performed on ultrathin NiO films to reinvestigate its surface quality and valence electronic structures, respectively. On Ag(0 0 1) substrate, the best epitaxial order was observed for high temperature deposition with sufficient oxygen flux associated with a post-deposition oxygen annealing. The effect of the substrate vicinity on valence band electronic structure, in case of interfacial NiO layers, has been explained. The variation of Ni 3d to O 2p photoemission cross-section with photon energy ( hν ) has been demonstrated in this work.