Epitaxial EuO thin films on GaAs

We demonstrate the epitaxial growth of EuO on GaAs by reactive molecular beam epitaxy. Thin films are grown in an adsorption-controlled regime with the aid of an MgO diffusion barrier. Despite the large lattice mismatch, it is shown that EuO grows well on MgO(001) with excellent magnetic properties. Epitaxy on GaAs is cube-on-cube and longitudinal magneto-optic Kerr effect measurements demonstrate a large Kerr rotation of 0.57 degrees, a significant remanent magnetization, and a Curie temperature of 69 K. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3490649]