Long Range Transmission and Preservation of Single Crystal Structural Information by Interfacial Polycrystalline Layers

Abstract

IT has already been established in this laboratory that the mechanism accounting for the long range transmission and preservation of structural information by amorphous inter-facial layers prepared on top of crystals is the thermoelectret1 or photoelectret2 mechanism. The charged elements of the real structure of the surfaces of crystal substrates produce in these layers a certain electret structure which copies the electrical relief of the underlying substrate surface. This electret structure which is frozen in interfacial layers is so stable that it persists even after the layers are detached from the crystals; the interfacial layers turn out to be electrical copies of the surfaces of solids, in other words.