Seeded epitaxy of metals by sputter deposition

It is not generally appreciated that crystalline metallic thin film structures can be prepared using sputter deposition techniques by growth onto single crystalline substrates. Three systems, fcc Co/Cu(100), bcc Co/Cr(100), and hcp Co/Ru(101̄3) multilayers are described in detail from a comprehensive study of more than 40 different systems. It is shown that the use of thin "seed" layers readily allows the preparation of different crystal structures and/or crystal orientations for the same substrate. © 1994 American Institute of Physics.