Crystal phase formation and growth in rare-gas clusters

The structure of clusters formed in supersonic jets of heavy rare gases is studied by the methods of electron diffractometry. It is found that a crystalline fcc structure with “deformation-type” stacking faults (SF) is formed in aggregates consisting of N⩾2⋅103 atoms/cluster. The SF density is a linear function of N−1/3. The number of “defective” planes does not depend on the cluster size and is equal to four in all cases. Such a number of intersecting SF leads to the formation of nonvanishing atomic steps ensuring a rapid and subsequently defectless growth of the cluster on all densely packed planes facing the cubooctahedron. The obtained results confirm experimentally the important role of the kinetic factor in the formation of the atomic structure of a cluster.