Structure of liquid Te-based alloys used in rewritable DVDs

We analyze the structure of Te-based chalcogenide compounds that are used as materials for rewritable DVDs by using a combination of neutron diffraction and ab initio computer simulation. We show that in the liquid, the atoms have a low average coordination number, as the result of a Peierls distortion. The partial pair correlation functions are obtained from the computer simulation data. © 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V

X-ray investigation of subsurface interstitial oxygen at Nb/oxide interfaces

We have investigated the dissolution of a natural oxide layer on a Nb(110) surface upon heating, combining x-ray reflectivity, grazing incidence diffuse scattering, and core-level spectroscopy. The natural oxide reduces after heating to 145 degrees C partially from Nb2O5 to NbO2, and an enrichment in subsurface interstitial oxygen by similar to 70% in a depth of 100 A is observed. After heating to 300 degrees C, the oxide reduces to NbO and the surplus subsurface oxygen gets dissolved into the bulk. Our approach can be applied for further investigation of the effect of subsurface interstitial oxygen on the performance of niobium rf cavities. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics