Chromium nanostructures formed by dewetting of heteroepitaxial films on W(100)

Bennett, R. A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6266-3510, Mulley, J. S., Etman, H. A., Sparkes, A., Eralp, T., Held, G., Cavill, S. A. and Dhesi, S. S. (2012) Chromium nanostructures formed by dewetting of heteroepitaxial films on W(100). Physical Review B, 86 (4). 045454. ISSN 1098-0121 doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.86.045454

Abstract/Summary

In this paper, we report the surprising formation of square-based facetted islands with linear dimension of the order of 500 nm upon dewetting of a Cr multilayer onW(100).We show that these square islands are composed of inclined facets surrounding a depressed center such that the facet slopes inward with the outer edges of the islands thicker than the centers. The islands’ shapes do not represent traditional equilibrium crystal shapes as expected for a Wulf construction. In situ UV and x-ray photoelectron emission microscopy allied to spatially resolved spectroscopy throws considerable light on the nature of the dewetting and shows that the metal surface between the islands remains covered by a thin pseudomorphic wetting layer of ∼1 ML. Low-energy electron diffraction and scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopies allow quantification of facet slopes, and we identify a predominance of tilted Cr(100) facets ±5◦ off of the substrate normal bound by (210) planes at ∼26◦. The epitaxial Cr islands adopt the bulk Cr lattice constant but are tilted with respect to the surface normal.We suggest that the Cr crystallite tilting creates a vicinal-like interface structure that determines the island morphology

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/28915
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > Department of Chemistry Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Chemical Analysis Facility (CAF) > Electron Microscopy Laboratory (CAF)
Publisher	American Physical Society
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