Epitaxial growth of copper, gold, and silver on vicinal NaCl surfaces

Epitaxial growth of metal films on (1 0 0) cleaved NaCl surfaces has been extensively studied. However, attempts to grow films on other crystallographic surfaces of rock salt are limited and typically require sophisticated control over the polishing process. This work uses a simple approach of polishing NaCl crystals approximately towards a specific crystallographic plane followed by the water treatment or air annealing. Epitaxial Ag, Au, and Cu films were grown quite reproducibly on these surfaces through physical vapor deposition. The technique is quite robust against misalignment of the deposition surface from the intended crystallographic plane. This tolerance towards surface misorientation was observed not only for the high atomic-density planes such as (1 1 1) and (1 1 0) but also for the previously unexplored and relatively high-index (1 1 2) surface.