The formation of thin films of gold on mica has been studied in ultra-high vacuum (5xl0-10 torr) . The mica substrates were heat-treated for 24 hours at 375°C, cleaved, and annealed for 15 minutes at the deposition temperature of 300°C prior to deposition. An impingement flux of 3x1013 atoms cm-2 sec-1 was used. These conditions were found to give high number densities of multiple twin particles and are based on a systematic series of nucleation experiments described elsewhere. Individual deposits of varying deposition time were made and examined by bright and dark field TEM after "cleavage preparation" of highly transparent specimens. In the early stages of growth, the films generally consist of small particles which are either single crystals or multiply twinned; a strong preference for multiply twinned particles was found whenever the particle number densities were high. Fig. 1 shows the stable cluster density ns and the variation with deposition time of multiple twin particle and single crystal particle densities, respectively. Corresponding micrographs and diffraction patterns are shown in Fig. 2.
