Abstract
Highly crystalline (111)-oriented gold films have been vacuum deposited on chromium sublayers evaporated on sapphire (0001) substrates. The degree of a preferred orientation of gold films remarkably depends on the chromium layer thickness and is almost independent on substrate temperatures in the region of 150–325°C. In particular, chromium sublayers with a thickness of less than 5 nm gives rise to a significant improvement in the alignment of the gold films. It is evident from TEM observations that the vacuum evaporated sublayers, by heating a chromium source, are composed of a well-defined (0001) epitaxial Cr2O3 thin films grown on (0001) sapphire. The formation of the Cr2O3 layers allows growing easily epitaxially (111)-oriented gold films.
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