Time of flight impact-collision ion scattering (TOF-ICISS) has been used to investigate the heteroepitaxial growth of 3 ML of An or Ag on Ni(I 1 1), and Ag on Cu(I 1 1) over a wide temperature range from 170 through 680 K. We found that two different types of epitaxial growth exist: M(I I 1)[11(2) over bar]/Sub(I I 1)[11(2) over bar] (normal mode) and M(I 1 1)[(112) over bar]//Sub(I I 1))[1 12] (reverse mode) (M represents An or Ag, and Sub represents Ni or Cu, respectively). Moreover the relative amounts of these two growth modes show an observed oscillatory dependence on the growth temperature during metal deposition. It is our belief that this is previously unobserved phenomena. It is sufficiently general to encompass metal-on-metal systems. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.