Band engineering in silicide alloys

Valence Band Control of Metal Silicide Films via Stoichiometry.

The unique electronic and mechanical properties of metal silicide films render them interesting for advanced materials in plasmonic devices, batteries, field-emitters, thermoelectric devices, transistors, and nanoelectromechanical switches. However, enabling their use requires precisely controlling their electronic structure. Using platinum silicide (PtxSi) as a model silicide, we demonstrate t...

On the Alloying and Properties of Tetragonal Nb5Si3 in Nb-Silicide Based Alloys

The alloying of Nb₅Si₃ modifies its properties. Actual compositions of (Nb,TM)₅X₃ silicides in developmental alloys, where X = Al + B + Ge + Si + Sn and TM is a transition and/or refractory metal, were used to calculate the composition weighted differences in electronegativity (Δχ) and an average valence electron concentration (VEC) and the solubility range of X to study the alloying and proper...

Effective band structure of random alloys.

Random substitutional A(x)B(1-x) alloys lack formal translational symmetry and thus cannot be described by the language of band-structure dispersion E(k(→)). Yet, many alloy experiments are interpreted phenomenologically precisely by constructs derived from wave vector k(→), e.g., effective masses or van Hove singularities. Here we use large supercells with randomly distributed A and B atoms, w...

Band gaps of GaPN and GaAsN alloys

Heterojunction band offset engineering

Control of band discontinuities in semiconductor heterostructures may introduce a new important degree of freedom in the design of heterojunction devices and allow independent optimization of carrier injection, carrier confinement and ionization thresholds in high speed and optoelectronic devices. We will review recently proposed methods to microscopically control heterojunction parameters by m...