Metal electrodeposition on single crystal metal surfaces mechanisms, structure and applications

This paper is a short review about the principle, mechanisms and applications of epitaxial electrochemical growth of ultrathin metal films on single crystal metal electrode surfaces. Starting from an atomic scale view of electrodeposition the parallel is made with the parent technique molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) in ultra high vacuum (UHV). A first section is devoted to homoepitaxy studies. Subsequent sections deal with selected studies of heteroepitaxy of magnetic materials and electrocatalysts.