Epitaxial growth of FCC metals on various crystallographic surfaces of NaCl

Interest in epitaxially grown thin films has seen an exponential growth over the decades due to their significant scientific and technological impact. Techniques combining various substrates and vapor deposition techniques have been used to grow a range of crystallographically oriented thin films. One of the earlier approaches involved the use of freshly cleaved (100) surface of a single crystal NaCl to grow (100) oriented films of various metals through physical vapor deposition process. This offers a very efficient and convenient method of producing free-standing, oriented single-crystal metal films.