Abstract
Copper, silver and gold have been evaporated onto heated cleavage surfaces of alkali halide crystals in an electron diffraction camera. The diffraction patterns have been studied continuously as the depositions were carried out and the crystalline arrangement in the films has been deduced as a function of thickness. When the growth is epitaxial the orientations are predominantly parallel, with subsidiary twinning and the (112) orientation. The proportion of the latter orientations, the crystal size and the degree of disorientation at different levels in the films may vary considerably. Single crystal growth by evaporation is found in certain cases to cease beyond a certain thickness; an explanation of this is put forward. Fine structure effects have been observed in the patterns. These effects have been analyzed in some detail, and possible explanations are suggested.

This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit: