Graphoepitaxy of electrodeposited tin

The crystallographic orientation of electrodeposited tin islands induced by a square wave relief pattern etched into an SiO2 substrate is reported. The islands 〈100〉 axis is normal to the substrate within 0.2° full width at half-maximum (FWHM) and the 〈001〉 axis is parallel to the long or running direction of the relief pattern within 5.0° FWHM. The islands are regular rectangular prisms bounded by the (100), (010), and (001) crystallographic planes, with dimensions ranging from 0.1 to 100 μm. The relief pattern used to induce orientation had a typical depth of 0.1 μm and a periodicity of 2.7 μm. The deposits were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, x-ray fluorescence, and x-ray diffraction.