Evaporation of silver thin films on mica

We have studied the effect of evaporation parameters on the growth of epita xial silver films on mica. Our object was to grow films with large Rat area s to be used as substrates in STM studies. We have found optimum parameters which result in extremely Rat films which in the scale of several micromet ers consist only of terraces several hundred nanometers wide and separated by monatomic steps; and a few deep pinholes averaging an areal density of r oughly one pinhole per every square micrometer of film surface. Certain oth er parameter values produced exceedingly rough surfaces. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.