Atomic force microscopy studies on the surface morphology of {111} tabularAgBr crystals

Both ex situ and in situ atomic force microscopy have been applied to study the (1 1 1) and (1 0 0) surfaces of tabular silver bromide crystals grown from dimethyl sulphoxide-water solutions. This resulted in observations of monosteps, macrosteps, etch pits, pinning of steps and nucleated crystals s howing twin planes. These examinations indicate that the growth and dissolu tion of both the (1 0 0) and the polar (1 1 1) faces occur via steps in man y configurations. The registered 40-nm distance between the parallel twin p lanes of the nucleated crystals agrees with transmission electron microscop y measurements done on tabular crystals grown by the industrial double-jet precipitation method. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.