Gold Decoration of Etched Polycrystalline KCl

Abstract

The gold decoration method described by Bassett was shown to be capable of displaying unit lattice steps on cleavage surfaces of sodium chloride. By this technique slip steps could be readily distinguished from cleavage steps. Bassett's technique was refined by others to include cleaving the crystal in vacuum and heating to obtain thermal etch patterns from which information on the sites and nature of dislocations could be deduced. Another use for the technique was to decorate PbCl2 inclusions in KCl where the resulting patterns suggested the presence of double electric layers surrounding the precipitate.