Effect of heat treatment and tension on the surface morphology of thin Pt foils

Abstract

We investigated the formation of nanostructures on the surface of rolled thin platinum foils at the heating and “tension–compression” cycles in ultrahigh vacuum. The surface was characterized by LEED, AES, AFM, optical microscopy and micro Raman spectroscopy (MRS). Quantitative characterization of the surface relief was made by fractal analysis. About 95 % of the Pt foil surface was made by close packed Pt (111) face with unidirectional rippled multi-scale relief. Under the applied tension, changes in the LEED and AFM patterns were observed and it was found that, preceding the formation of the main crack, the surface becomes difractionally disordered with relief fractality turning to an isotropic one. Moreover, at the foil surface, near the clips of the sample holder (about 5 % of the surface area), the surface groups of micro crystals with sizes about 10 µm were observed which were identified by MRS as microdiamonds and diamond-like carbon.