Defects in silver films prepared by evaporation of the metal onto mica

Abstract

Silver deposits, with the (111) silver plane parallel to the plane of the deposit, were prepared by evaporation of the metal on to the cleavage face of hot muscovite mica. A number of films of different thicknesses were examined in a transmission electron microscope and were found to contain dislocations, plane stacking faults, bent stacking faults, tetrahedra of stacking fault, and twins whose twinning plane was parallel to (111). The lateral boundaries to the twins was parallel to the {211} planes. Twin boundaries parallel to (111) often contained dislocations, some of which may have been twinning dislocations. Mechanisms by which these defects could have been formed during film growth are described.