Lead sulfide (PbS) thin films were deposited from a solution
onto
chemically etched GaAs substrates. The substrates were etched using
two different chemical etchants, citric acid and phosphorous acid,
resulting in different substrate roughness values from 0.4 nm up to
6.2 nm. In both cases, etching resulted in the simultaneous exposure
of (100), (111), and (311) microfacets. These different substrate
conditions had a strong impact on the morphology and microstructure
of the PbS films. This work provides the first reported evidence for
PbS thin films deposited onto GaAs(311) microfacets with {113}/⟨110⟩
twinning relations.