Metallic thin film growth on vicinal Cu substrates

In this study we have investigated the heteroepitaxial growth of nickel and silver on vicinal copper substrates. Nickel was deposited onto a (211) substrate. The low lattice mismatch between copper and nickel of 2.5% enables epitaxial bidimensional growth in the substrate's orientation, where the strain can be accommodated in the overlaying film. On the contrary, copper and silver have a much larger mismatch of about 13% which usually cannot be accommodated in the film. In general, Ag is known to form alloys or to induce faceting on a stepped Cu surfaces. Here, silver was deposited onto a Cu(311) facet covered with a monatomic layer of NaCl. For the first time we show that Ag can be grown as ultrathin film in the substrates's orientation on a stepped surface using NaCl as a novel surfactant material.