New Growth Mode through Decorated Twin Boundaries

Stacking faults in homoepitaxy on Ir(111): Detection, evolution with film thickness, and associated defect patterns

“…11͑b͒. Through the energetic avoidance of intrinsic stacking faults 14 ͑two faults in subsequent layers͒ atoms attaching to the decoration row will shift the decoration row atoms slightly to the left, thereby creating new fourfold coordinated adsorption sites. Further attachment under the constraint of optimum coordination of the attaching atoms results in the formation of an fcc twin crystallite ͑stacking sequence abac͒ on the left and the introduction of a new fault on the right ͑stacking sequence abcb͒ ͓compare Fig.…”

“…Attachment of additional atoms to the decoration rows results in island growth. As described in our previous publication on stacking fault influenced growth, 14 stacking faults in two subsequent layers ͑intrinsic stacking faults͒ are energetically avoided ͑see also below͒. Thus, the material is attached in such a way that the adatom islands growing toward the inside of the area with the fault located in the first layer does not introduce an additional fault in the second layer.…”

“…Our manuscript extends to previous studies on the atomic scale mechanisms of stacking fault proliferation in thin Ir films with increasing film thickness. 14 After an overview on growth morphology in homoepitaxy on Ir͑111͒ at 350 K we will describe in detail scanning tunneling microscopy ͑STM͒ and low energy electron diffraction ͑LEED͒ methods to quantify the fraction of faulted or twinned surface area. The surprising thermal stability of stacking faults in thin Ir films allows to test STM and LEED methods of fault area detection against each other.…”

Twins and their boundaries during homoepitaxy on Ir(111)

“…Fig. 1(a)-(d) displays characteristic elements of a homoepitaxial growth sequence on Ir(111) already discussed in more detail previously 10,11 . After deposition of 0.2 ML as in Fig.…”

“…Complications due to chemical inhomogeneities or epitaxial strain are absent. This article is a follow up of previous work on the formation and proliferation of stacking faults and twin crystallites in thin homoepitaxial Ir films on Ir(111) [8][9][10][11][12] . The present study combines the surface view of a partially twinned film obtained by low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) with the surface+subsurface, quantitative view provided by surface X-ray diffraction (SXRD).…”