Antimony Growth Research Articles

Quasicrystalline Antimony Thin Films

AbstractThe growth of antimony (Sb) thin films on the fivefold surface of icosahedral Ag−In−Yb quasicrystal has been studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). At low coverage, the deposited Sb yields a network of pentagons of different sizes and heights. These Sb pentagons can be mapped by a pentagonal tiling of the substrate and thus exhibit quasicrystalline long‐range order. Subsequent deposition of Sb yields a disordered film. XPS observations of the growth mode are consistent with the STM results.

Stibnite microstructures as imprints of fault movement

The natural deformation of stibnite in relation to the kinematic history of a regional fault is resolved using microstructural analysis of massive stibnite along the Biards Fault in the Massif Central (France). Stibnite underwent intra-crystalline deformation associated with a strong linear and planar anisotropy. Lepidoblastic textures, undulatory extinction of oriented grains, growth of antimony between these grains, and a colour change of stibnite from white to black, result from dynamic recrystallisation. A range of asymmetric microstructures indicate non-coaxial deformation and a left-lateral sense of shear, related to the movement of the fault zone. The computed displacement corresponds to the geological offsets measured along the fault. We conclude that stibnite has microstructurally recorded the bulk kinematics of its host fault zone.

A RHEED study of the growth of antimony on tungsten (110)

Antimony has been evaporated under ultrahigh vacuum conditions on to an atomically clean tungsten (110) surface at 300K. The structural changes occurring from submonolayer up to 60 mean monolayers coverage, have been monitored using reflection high-energy electron diffraction. Deposition under these conditions yielded a series of submonolayer structures followed by a spontaneous change of symmetry at a coverage of theta approximately=2 from two-fold to four-fold symmetry. Further deposition caused the growth of two types of long, thin three-dimensional islands of antimony, one similar to bulk antimony, the other an abnormal FCC phase with the same lattice constant. Both types of islands grew with their pseudocubic (100) face parallel to the (110) substrate and the relaxation from perfect four-fold symmetry was detected by the RHEED. Subsequent electron microscopic examination of the thicker films confirmed the structural results deduced from the RHEED experiments.