Single crystalline insulating films on metal substrates

Fabrication of good quality insulator-metal heterostructures is one of the interesting topics in materials science. It is expected to not only provide several novel physical phenomena such as band gap narrowing, the change in charge transfer energy etc. but also help fabrication of magneto-tunnel junctions in future magnetic device. We have examined the growth of alkali halide on several metal substrates and characterized the atomic and electronic structures of the insulator-metal heterostructure. The observed epitaxial orientations and the behavior of band gap and valence state energies have been discussed.