On the determination of stacking fault energy in epitaxial f.c.c. films

Abstract

In the cases where misfit in f.c.c. epitaxial films is accommodated by partial dislocations bounding stacking faults, it would appear from the work of Jesser (1970) that a measurement of the residual elastic strain in a thick crystal would yield a value for the stacking-fault energy of the epitaxial film. It is shown, however, that because of necessary incorporation of stair-rod dislocations where the stacking faults cross, such a value can only be an upper limit, and that in practice this is not likely to be a very useful upper limit. A numerical example is worked out for the case of cobalt on (100) copper.