Influence of step structure on preferred orientation relationships of Ag deposited on Ni(111)

Dominique Chatain (1) , Saransh Singh (2) , Blandine Courtois (1) , Jérémie Silvent (3) , Elodie Verzeroli (3) , Gregory S Rohrer (2) , Marc de Graef (2) , Paul Wynblatt (2)

1 CINaM - Centre Interdisciplinaire de Nanoscience de Marseille
2 CMU - Carnegie Mellon University [Pittsburgh]
3 Orsay Physics

Previous studies have shown that the orientation relationships which develop in hetero-epitaxy are strongly influenced by the alignment of steps in the deposit with the pre-existing steps of the substrate. In this paper we use a combination of experiments with computer simulations to identify the important influence of substrate step structure on the eventual orientation relationships that develop in the deposit. We have made use of Ag deposited on Ni as it has been used extensively as a model system for the study of hetero-epitaxy. This system displays a large lattice mismatch of 16%. It is shown that on any surface vicinal to Ni(111), which has two possible kinds of <110> steps (A-steps with {100} ledges and B-steps with {111} ledges), a Ag deposit adopts a single orientation relationship because only A-steps remain stable in the presence of Ag.

Mots clés: Orientation relationships; hetero-epitaxy; EBSD; interfacial step structure; molecular dynamics modeling

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Dominique Chatain, Saransh Singh, Blandine Courtois, Jérémie Silvent, Elodie Verzeroli, et al.. Influence of step structure on preferred orientation relationships of Ag deposited on Ni(111). Acta Materialia, 2020, 200, pp.287-296. ⟨10.1016/j.actamat.2020.08.082⟩. ⟨hal-02933294v2⟩