  Epitaxy of oxide materials on silicon (Si) substrates is of great interest
for future functional devices using the large variety of physical properties of
the oxides as ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism, or superconductivity. Recently,
materials with high spin polarization of the charge carriers have become
interesting for semiconductor-oxide hybrid devices in spin electronics. Here,
we report on pulsed laser deposition of magnetite (Fe3O4) on Si(001) substrates
cleaned by an in situ laser beam high temperature treatment. After depositing a
double buffer layer of titanium nitride (TiN) and magnesium oxide (MgO), a high
quality epitaxial magnetite layer can be grown as verified by RHEED intensity
oscillations and high resolution x-ray diffraction.
