Growth of fractal crystals in amorphousGeSe2films

Abstract
We present the first study of fractal growth in a solid-solid phase transition. A highly ramified, randomly branched crystalline phase was obtained by heating thin amorphous GeSe2 films. Our result for the fractal dimension of the above structure, D∼1.7, is in agreement with that of two-dimensional diffusion-limited aggregates. Possible mechanisms resulting in fractal growth are discussed.