Epitaxial Au1-xNix solid solutions with x ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 have
been grown by MBE on Au(001) at room temperature. Their relaxation ha
s been studied in-situ by RHEED and ex-situ by GIXD, TEM and HREM. All
of the films studied relax via the introduction of a/6[211] partial d
islocations and microtwins. Furthermore, alloys ranging in composition
from 30 to 60 at.% Ni undergo an ordering process during growth in wh
ich pseudo-periodic antiphase structures based on the L1(0) unit cell
are formed. The origin of this state of order is attributed primarily
to the large misfit existing between the alloy films and Au(001). Copy
right (C) 1996 Acta Metallurgica Inc.