Morphology of alkali halide thin films studied by AFM

Thin layers of alkali halides were investigated by atomic force microscope (AFM). The studied systems were: LiBr/KBr(0 0 1) with −16.7% misfit, LiF/Si(0 0 1) with +4.4% misfit, LiBr/LiF(0 0 1) with +36.8% misfit and NaCl/Si(0 0 1) with +46.5% misfit. The results show that the surface morphology strongly depends on the temperature of layer formation. The alkali halides deposited on the foreign substrate at elevated temperatures or at room temperature and subsequently annealed form preferentially 3D islands leaving uncovered substrate areas between them. It is suggested that Ostwald ripening takes place at elevated temperatures.