Bottom-up assembly of metallic germanium

Extending chip performance beyond current limits of miniaturisation requires new materials and functionalities that integrate well with the silicon platform. Germanium fits these requirements and has been proposed as a high-mobility channel material, a light emitting medium in silicon-integrated lasers, and a plasmonic conductor for bio-sensing. Common to these diverse applications is the need for homogeneous, high electron densities in three-dimensions (3D). Here we use a bottom-up approach to demonstrate the 3D assembly of atomically sharp doping profiles in germanium by a repeated stacking of two-dimensional (2D) high-density phosphorus layers. This produces high-density (1019 to 1020 cm−3) low-resistivity (10−4Ω · cm) metallic germanium of precisely defined thickness, beyond the capabilities of diffusion-based doping technologies. We demonstrate that free electrons from distinct 2D dopant layers coalesce into a homogeneous 3D conductor using anisotropic quantum interference measurements, atom probe tomography, and density functional theory

In situ synchrotron high-energy X-ray diffraction analysis on phase transformations in Ti–Al alloys processed by equal-channel angular pressing

Mixtures of 47-Al and 53-Ti powders (atomic %) have been consolidated using back pressure equal-channel angular pressing starting with both raw and ball-milled powders. In situ synchrotron high-energy X-ray diffraction studies are presented with continuous Rietveld analysis obtained upon a heating ramp from 300 K to 1075 K performed after the consolidation process. Initial phase distributions contain all intermetallic compounds of this system except Al, with distribution maxima in the outer regions of the concentrations (α-Ti, TiAl3). Upon annealing, the phase evolution and lattice parameter changes owing to chemical segregation, which is in favour for the more equilibrated phases such as γ-TiAl, α2-Ti3Al and TiAl2, were followed unprecedentedly in detail. An initial δ-TiH2 content with a phase transition at about 625 K upon heating created an intermediate β-Ti phase which played an important role in the reaction chain and gradually transformed into the final products

Data accompanying the publication "Gate-controlled quantum dots and superconductivity in planar germanium"

Data accompanying the manuscript "Gate-controlled quantum dots and superconductivity in planar germanium