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Corrkation between the growth surface structure and the oxygen-to-aluminium flux ratio was found in vapour deposited Al films. Studies of the effect of co-depositing oxygen species on the growth surface structure were carried out in the case of epitaxially grown Al films (on NaCl, mica and GaAs substrates) containing crystals of (111), (100) and (110) orientations. On (111) crystal faces bunches of growth steps decorated by pinning sites, dents, macro steps correlating to grain boundaries and hillocks were developed. However, on (100) and (110) crystal faces only dents have been found. These results help to explain the correlation between the crystal face anisotropy in the surface micro-chemistry and anisotropy in the participation of oxygen species in the growth mechanism on the various crystal faces. Whiskers and ‘mushroom whiskers’ were detected in Al films deposited at high level of oxygen contamination on amorphous substrates at first. Their formation can be ascribed also to these phenomena.

The columnar structure in obliquely evaporated silicon oxide layers was investigated by transmission electron microscope (TEM). For TEM studies of these layers, samples were made by low angle ion-beam thinning of cross-sections, the planes of which were determined by the normal of the film and the direction of evaporation. Increasing the angle of evaporation from 5° to 30° (measured from the plane of the substrate), a change from a well–defined columnar structure to a striated structure was observed, for layers evaporated both under “low-rate” and “high-rate” conditions. There is a clear-cut dependence of the orientation of columns (αc) upon the angle of evaporation (α), however deviating from the “tangent rule” (tanαc=2tanα).