Epitaxial growth of a metastable modification of copper with body-centered-cubic structure

Slow deposition of Cu onto a clean unheated Fe{001} surface produced films with large amounts of defects, but still detectable crystallinity. Low-energy electron diffraction showed that the films contained regions with a (somewhat distorted) body-centered-cubic structure and the same or nearly the same lattice parameter as the underlying substrate. Auger-electron spectroscopy suggested that the crystalline regions were essentially pure Cu, thus allowing the conclusion that a metastable bcc modification of Cu has been realized, consistent with the predictions of total-energy band calculations reported elsewhere. © 1987 The American Physical Society.