Strain-relief by single dislocation loops in calcite crystals grown on self-assembled monolayers.

ABSTRACT: Most of our knowledge of dislocation-mediated stress relaxation during epitaxial crystal growth comes from the study of inorganic heterostructures. Here we use Bragg coherent diffraction imaging to investigate a contrasting system, the epitaxial growth of calcite (CaCO3) crystals on organic self-assembled monolayers, where these are widely used as a model for biomineralization processes. The calcite crystals are imaged to simultaneously visualize the crystal morphology and internal strain fields. Our data reveal that each crystal possesses a single dislocation loop that occupies a common position in every crystal. The loops exhibit entirely different geometries to misfit dislocations generated in conventional epitaxial thin films and are suggested to form in response to the stress field, a

SUBMITTER: Ihli J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4912617 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature