Surface topography of rapidly grown KH2PO4 crystals with additives: ex situ investigation by atomic force microscopy

Surface topographies of the {1 0 1} and {1 0 0} faces of potassium dihydrog en phosphate (KDP) crystals, which were grown by a rapid growth technique i n aqueous solution with additives, were investigated ex situ by atomic forc e microscopy (AFM). We presented various AFM images under different growth conditions, such as supersaturation, solution conditions (additives) and di rections, etc. Furthermore, we found that the qualitative features of the i mages could be in accordance with the theoretical descriptions. In addition , we also discussed some experimental problems concerning the ex situ measu rement by AFM. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.