Copper Pentagonal Micropyramids Grown by Mechanically Activated Electrodeposition

Abstract

The formation of copper pentagonal micropyramids (PMPs) with high (multiatomic) spiral growth steps, which are grown by electrocrystallization with mechanical activation of the cathode, is studied experimentally. A new spiral-layer growth mechanism for the formation of such PMP is proposed. It is shown that PMPs grow on flat pentagonal microcrystals (PMCs) formed initially and containing fivefold twins with one of the twin boundaries being inclined by the angle of 35°16’ to the {110}-type substrate crystallographic plane. Such crystal geometry causes an inclined growth step on the PMC surface. The preferential deposition of metal atoms on this step leads to the spiral-layer PMC growth and the formation of PMPs with a structure inherited from the PMCs.