Detailed study of defects in thin fullerite films

The structural investigations of fullerite films were performed using high-resolution electron microscopy, electron diffraction and electron energy loss spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In particular defects such as dislocations, stacking faults and twins were studied in details. It was shown that fullerite films could be characterized by a face-centered cubic (f.c.c.) structure with lattice parameter a = 1.416 nm. They are distinguished for their rich polytypic structure that is caused by breaking of alteration of closely packed planes of (111) type. The quantitative method based on information theory using the ''run-length encoding'' algorithm was suggested to evaluate the degree of disorder in the f.c.c structure of thin fullerite films. (Copyright copyright 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim)