Observation of epitaxial overlayer of metals at atomic level

The epitaxial overlayer of metals at the atomic level has been observed in field ion microscope with 5 ns pulsedlaser heating. The superlattice layer growth depends on the surface free energy and lattice misfit. Many defects such as vacancies, vacancy clusters, voids, dislocations and twins are produced during epitaxial growth because of the lattice misfit even though the condition of surface free energy is satisfied. Alloying occurs on the surface of the metal during epitaxial growth. Diffusion is probably via the exchange mechanism. The observations concern Fe on Rh, Mo and Pt.EI01A1-A62