Abstract
Gold was epitaxially deposited onto single crystal films of iron oriented with (001) parallel to their surface at various substrate temperatures between 100 and 700°C. The orientation relationship between the gold and the iron was (001)-Au parallel to (001)-Fe and [100]-Au parallel to [110]-Fe. Interfacial dislocations were introduced to relieve the misfit strain at the interface and their separations and configurations changed sensitively with deposit thickness, substrate temperature and subsequent heat treatments. At a substrate temperature of 100°C the misfit dislocations were arranged along the ⟨110⟩-Au directions while they became parallel to the ⟨100⟩-Au directions above a substrate temperature of 500°C. The Burgers vectors of the misfit dislocations were the a/2[011]-Au type and inclined 45° to the interface. At the intermediate substrate temperatures spirals of interfacial dislocations were observed. The spacings and configurations of the interfacial dislocations are explained by the inter-diffusion of gold and iron and by the mechanisms of the generation of the interfacial dislocations.
