Informational properties of interfacial metallic layers

Abstract

Informational properties of monocrystalline and polycrystalline interfacial silver and gold layers thermally evaporated in a vacuum of 10 -5 torr onto NaCl crystals cleaved in air were studied by the method of decoration with anthraquinone. It has been found that on the outer side of these layers there arise biaxial textures of anthraquinone crystals which reflect the electric relief of the NaCl surface, the same as is the case on the outer side of interfacial dielectric and semiconductor layers. Gold layers at least 1000 Å thick and silver layers less than 100 Å thick show textures with axes parallel to 〈110〉 and 〈1 1 0〉 NaCl, just as is the case with crystallization of anthraquinone directly on the NaCl surface. At silver layer thickness above 100 Å the texture axes rotate by 45° from 〈110〉 to 〈100〉 NaCl. The contact sides of the interfacial silver layers “remember” structural information even after they are detached from NaCl surfaces, whereas the gold layers do not preserve information. The informational properties of interfacial metallic layers are explained in terms of local semiconductor and/or dielectric microstructures resulting from an interaction between metal atoms or ions and residual gases in the vicinity of the electrically active centres of crystalline substrates.