Related papers: Structural tunability and origin of two-level syst…
Here we demonstrate the controlled growth of Bi(110) and Bi(111) films on an (insulating) $\alpha$-Al$_2$O$_3$(0001) substrate by surface X-ray diffraction and X-ray reflectivity using synchrotron radiation. At temperatures as low as 40 K,…
Silicon self-assembly at step edges in the initial stage of homoepitaxial growth on a vicinal Si(111) surface is studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The resulting atomic structures change dramatically from a parallel array of…
Exotic manipulation of the flow of photons in nanoengineered semiconductor materials with an aperiodic distribution of nanostructures plays a key role in efficiency-enhanced and industrially viable broadband photonic technologies. Through a…
The discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in bulk La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ under high hydrostatic pressure and, more recently, biaxial compression in epitaxial thin films has ignited significant interest in understanding the interplay…
Typically the superconducting phase weakens at several points with the increase in disorder before it is distroyed in the 2d-thin films. This may lead to an inhomogeneous superconducting state without a continuous phase. Here we present…
Competing phenomena in low dimensional systems can generate exotic electronic phases, either through symmetry breaking or a non-trivial topology. In two-dimensional (2D) systems, the interplay between superfluidity, disorder and repulsive…
Amorphous thin films of Tb$_{17}$Co$_{83}$ (a-Tb-Co) grown by magnetron co-sputtering exhibit changes in magnetic anisotropy with varying growth and annealing temperatures. The magnetic anisotropy constant increases with increasing growth…
Aluminosilicate (Al-Si-O) thin films containing up to 31 at. % Al and 23 at. % Si were prepared by reactive RF magnetron co-sputtering. Mechanical and structural properties were measured by indentation and specular reflectance infrared…
Second harmonic (SH) radiation can only be generated in non-centrosymmetric bulk crystals under the electric-dipole approximation. Nonlinear thin films made from bulk crystals are technologically challenging because of complex and high…
The nature of enhanced photoemission in disordered and amorphous solids is an intriguing open question. A point in case is light emission in silicon, which occurs when the material is porous or nanostructured, but the effect is absent in…
Segregation at surfaces of metal-covalent binary liquids is often non-classical and in extreme cases such as AuSi, the surface crystallizes above the melting point. In this study, we employ atomic-scale computational frameworks to study the…
We report on the synthesis and characterization of nanocrystalline delta-MoN by crystallization of amorphous thin films grown on (100) Si by reactive sputtering at room temperature. Films with chemical composition MoN were grown using a…
The process of structural relaxation in disordered solids subjected to repeated tension-compression loading is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. The binary glass is prepared by rapid cooling well below the glass transition…
Systematic studies of the gradual fabrication by means of carbon ion-implantation of high-quality 6H-SiC layers on silicon surfaces have been carried out. The fluence of carbon ions varied from 5*10^15 cm-2 to 10^17 cm-2. Results of…
The surface of thin-film solar cells can be tailored with photonic nanostructures to allow light trapping in the absorbing medium. This in turn increases the optical thickness of the film and thus enhances their absorption. Such a coherent…
Elemental antimony (Sb) is a promising material for phase-change memory, neuromorphic computing and nanophotonic applications, because its compositional simplicity can prevent phase segregation upon extensive programming. Scaling down the…
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) provides uniform and conformal thin films that are of interest for a range of applications. To better understand the properties of amorphous ALD films, we need improved understanding of their local atomic…
Thin films of iron and permalloy Ni80Fe20 were prepared using an Ar+N2 mixture with magnetron sputtering technique at ambient temperature. The nitrogen partial pressure, during sputtering process was varied in the range of 0 to 100%,…
The atomic structure and physical properties of few-layered <111> oriented diamond nanocrystals (diamanes), covered by hydrogen atoms from both sides are studied using electronic band structure calculations. It was shown that energy…
Nanocrystalline materials exhibit properties that can differ substantially from those of their single crystal counterparts. As such, they provide ways to enhance and optimise their functionality for devices and applications. Here we report…