Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2011
Thin films of gold can be grown on {001} Ge single crystal substrates in two equivalent {110} orientation variants, related to each other by a 90° rotation about the surface normal. The morphology of the films is that of a mazed bicrystal, a polycrystalline film with many randomly distributed columnar grains in only two orientations. All grain boundaries are of the type S99 and display pure tilt character. In this work, we report on observations of the structural relaxation of these grain boundaries, with special emphasis on their characteristic behavior at the intersection with free surfaces and their evolution during thermal annealing.