A combination of in situ and post-deposition experiments were designed to probe surface roughening pathways leading to epitaxial breakdown during low-temperature (Ts595– 190 °C) growth of Ge~001! by molecular beam epitaxy ~MBE!. We demonstrate that epitaxial breakdown in these experiments is not controlled by background hydrogen adsorption or gradual defect accumulation as previously suggested,...

We have grown a novel epitaxial phase of cerium on vanadium using molecular-beam epitaxy and characterized by high-energy electron and x-ray diffraction. The results show that the Ce phase is contracted by 8% in the basal plane and expanded 2% out of the plane when compared to the ambient-temperature and ambient-pressure fcc, y-Ce. Furthermore, the relative orientation of the Ce(111) and the V(...

Single-crystalline, one-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures are considered to be one of the critical building blocks for nanoscale optoelectronics. Elucidation of the vapour-liquid-solid growth mechanism has already enabled precise control over nanowire position and size, yet to date, no reports have demonstrated the ability to choose from different crystallographic growth directions of a ...

New discoveries on collective processes in materials fabrication and performance are emerging in the mesoscopic size regime between the nanoscale, where atomistic effects dominate, and the macroscale, where bulk-like behavior rules. For semiconductor electronics and photonics, dimensional control of the architecture in this regime is the limiting factor for device performance. Epitaxial crystal...

Structurally uniform and chirality-pure single-wall carbon nanotubes are highly desired for both fundamental study and many of their technological applications, such as electronics, optoelectronics, and biomedical imaging. Considerable efforts have been invested in the synthesis of nanotubes with defined chiralities by tuning the growth recipes but the approach has only limited success. Recentl...

An atomistic model of the growth kinetics of stressed solid-solid phase transformations is presented. Solid phase epitaxial growth of (001) Si was used for comparison of new and prior models with experiments. The results indicate that the migration of crystal island ledges in the growth interface may involve coordinated atomic motion. The model accounts for morphological instabilities during st...

The activation energy for the surface self-diffusion of epitaxial erbium crystals grown on a tungsten field emitter tip has been examined. It was found to be strongly dependent both on the crystallographic orientation of the tip and the direction of electric field applied. The values of the activation energy, calculated from Arrhenius-type plots, and also field emission patterns of epitaxial Er...

Epitaxial heterostructures with precisely controlled composition and electronic modulation are of central importance for electronics, optoelectronics, thermoelectrics, and catalysis. In general, epitaxial material growth requires identical or nearly identical crystal structures with small misfit in lattice symmetry and parameters and is typically achieved by vapor-phase depositions in vacuum. W...