BIREFRINGENCE EFFECTS IN METAL OVERLAYERS ON LANGMUIR-BLODGETT-FILMS

The structure observed between crossed polarizers from silver layers that have been vacuum deposited slowly on top of fatty acid Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films are shown to be related to the 'crystallites' revealed by the intrinsic birefringence of the film. The anisotropy giving rise to the birefringence of the silver layer can be explained in terms of the positions of nucleation of metal grains. These are such that the nearest neighbors of a given grain always tend to lie in a specific direction relative to the crystalline packing of the underlying LB film.