Room-temperature epitaxial growth of Ag(110)/GaAs(100) films

Thin Ag films were deposited in a partially ionized beam vacuum system on undoped GaAs(100) substrates at room temperature. The x-ray pole-figure technique was used to characterize the crystal orientation. The epitaxial relationship observed was Ag(110)/GaAs(100) with Ag[100]//GaAs[1̄10]. The epitaxy was achieved at a vacuum in the 10−6 Torr range with no in situ cleaning. The substrates were prepared only by a HF dip immediately prior to deposition.