Crystalline zinc microflakes by thermal evaporation of zinc metal on glass
Abstract
A simple method of thermally evaporating a zinc metal pellet in high vacuum has produced a novel form of micron-sized zinc flakes on glass substrates. Most of the flakes are highly oriented along the [001] direction, and a few hundred nanometers thick. The flakes grew sparsely on the substrate and have 6-fold rotational symmetry with respect to an axis normal to the substrate. The grown structures are evidence of a mechanism consistent with the relative surface energy calculations for hexagonal close packed crystals.