Chromium nanostructures formed by dewetting of heteroepitaxial films on W(100)
2012
In this paper, we report the surprising formation of square-based facetted islands with linear dimension of the order of 500 nm upon dewetting of a Cr multilayer onW(100).We show that these square islands are composed of
inclined facets surrounding a depressed center such that the facet slopes inward with the outer edges of the islands
thicker than the centers. The islands’ shapes do not represent traditional equilibrium crystal shapes as expected
for a Wulf construction. In situ UV and x-ray photoelectron emission microscopy allied to spatially resolved
spectroscopy throws considerable light on the nature of the dewetting and shows that the metal surface between
the islands remains covered by a thin pseudomorphic wetting layer of ∼1 ML. Low-energy electron diffraction
and scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopies allow quantification of facet slopes, and we identify a
predominance of tilted Cr(100) facets ±5◦ off of the substrate normal bound by (210) planes at ∼26◦. The
epitaxial Cr islands adopt the bulk Cr lattice constant but are tilted with respect to the surface normal.We suggest
that the Cr crystallite tilting creates a vicinal-like interface structure that determines the island morphology
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