Growth of NaCl on thin epitaxial KCl films on Ag(100) studied by SPA-LEED

Abstract

We investigated the growth of NaCl on thin (100)-oriented films of KCl by spot profile analysis of low energy electron diffraction (SPA-LEED). The underlying question of this investigation was how the system accommodates to the misfit of −10% between the NaCl and KCl lattices. The KCl films (3 atomic layers thick) were epitaxially grown on a Ag(100) single crystal. We studied the heteroepitaxial growth of NaCl on KCl at 300K and at 500K, respectively. At 300K, the first NaCl monolayer (ML) grows pseudomorphically on the KCl film. From the second layer onward, the NaCl lattice relaxes. The NaCl multilayers roughen, and a small rotational disorder (±4°) of the NaCl domains is observed. The roughening results from the formation of multilayer islands of limited lateral size due to the misfit to the pseudomorphic first NaCl layer. At a growth temperature of 500K, no pseudomorphic NaCl layer forms, instead relaxed multilayer island growth of NaCl is observed from the first layer onward. Similarly to the growth at 300K, we find NaCl multilayer islands of limited lateral size. For both temperatures, we explain this growth behavior by the misfit that makes the adsorption sites at the island edges of the first relaxed NaCl layer less favorable for larger islands, promoting nucleation of multilayer islands.