Growth and magnetism of Ru films on graphite

We report a study of growth and magnetism of Ru films on the graphite surface for substrate temperatures T of 70 K and 300 K using C 1s photoemission and surface reflectivity in the extreme ultraviolet region. The films consist of islands with a thickness of the order of 10 nm. The islands grow mainly laterally in size or number until a transition point where they fill about 40% (T = 70K) or 30% (T = 300 K) of the film volume. Then this fraction remains nearly constant suggesting a purely vertical growth of the islands. For a film grown at T = 70 K until the transition point, no linear dichroism could be observed, indicating that the Ru film was not ferromagnetic.