Morphology of gold islands on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite as studied by scanning tunneling microscopy

The morphology of discontinuous gold films on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) was investigated by using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Thermally evaporated films showed roughly triangular or diamond-shaped islands ca. 100 to 200 nm wide and 20 nm high composed of steeply rising stacked layers of (111) planes.