The preparation of smooth single crystal surfaces of silver by an evaporation technique

An electron diffraction study has been made of the growth of evaporated silver layers on cleaved mica surfaces, with the substrate at various temperatures during the deposition. It is shown that good orientation (epitaxy) occurs over a wide range of temperatures, but that the nature of the orientation depends upon both the substrate temperature and the film thickness. Under certain conditions of proparation it is found that the surface of the silver deposit is very smooth on an atomic scale. These surfaces are of value as sub-strates for other experiments, both on epitaxy and on specimen preparation for high resolution electron microscopy of metals, and examples of these applications are quoted.