Abstract
Gold was electrodeposited on pure (001) Fe substrate from KCN bath, and the effects of current density and substrate temperature on nucleation and epitaxy of Au were examined by electronmicroscopy. It was attempted to apply Walton's “Statistical Theory of Nucleation” to the Au deposits. Linear relations were found between the logarithm of nucleation rate (log I) and the inverse number of substrate temperature (1/T), and between the logarithm of I (log I) and the logarithm of formation rate of adatom (log R). The Au films obtained in the present experiments made epitaxial growth on (001) Fe substrates. The epitaxy of Au films was controlled by the question whether the Au particles can easily be rearranged when they coalesce with the neighboring particles. High current densities had an effect on the improvement in the epitaxy of Au films, but the substrate temperature made a little contribution to the epitaxy.
