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Modern chemical synthesis methods towards low-dimensional phase change structures in the Ge –Sb–Te material system
This report centers on different modern chemical synthesis methods suitable for production with which low-dimensional crystalline structures are attainable in the Ge–Sb–Te material system. The general characteristics of the methods are described first. The special challenges are discussed for the Ge–Sb–Te material system. Growth optimization is studied, and the resulting nanostructures are presented. At last a comparison of the methods is given with respect to research scale vapor transport approach on the one hand and the potential described for future application in technology on the other hand. (Source: Progress...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - July 20, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research

Si –Ge–Sn alloys: From growth to applications
Publication date: March 2016 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials, Volume 62, Issue 1 Author(s): S. Wirths, D. Buca, S. Mantl In this review article, we address key material parameters as well as the fabrication and application of crystalline GeSn binary and SiGeSn ternary alloys. Here, the transition from an indirect to a fundamental direct bandgap material will be discussed. The main emphasis, however, is put on the Si–Ge–Sn epitaxy. The low solid solubility of α-Sn in Ge and Si of below 1 at.% along with the large lattice mismatch between α-Sn (6.489 Å) and Ge (5.646 Ã...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - July 20, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research

Assembling interferometers and in-situ observation of ambient environments and solid –liquid interfaces
Publication date: June 2016 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials, Volume 62, Issue 2 Author(s): Yuki Kimura, Kenta Murayama, Tomoya Yamazaki, Takao Maki The principle of interferometers and its applicability to our research on crystal growth can be understood through assembling interferometers. In particular, practical skills such as techniques for assembling interferometers and selecting optical components, which are not covered by general textbooks, can be learned. (Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials)
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - July 20, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research

Crystallization behavior of solid solutions from aqueous solutions: An environmental perspective
Publication date: Available online 1 July 2016 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials Author(s): Manuel Prieto, Frank Heberling, Rosa M. Rodríguez-Galán, Felix Brandt Aqueous–solid solution (AQ-SS) processes have garnered increasing attention from geochemists and environmental engineers because they play major roles in the fate and transport of elements in Earth surface environments. The reasons for this interest include: (i) the primary crystallization of minerals from multicomponent aqueous solutions leads to the formation of solid solutions in which different ions are substit...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - July 1, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research

Heusler compounds and spintronics
Publication date: Available online 30 June 2016 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials Author(s): Chris J. Palmstrøm Heusler compounds are a large group of intermetallic compounds with over 1000 members with similar crystal structures having a vast array of tunable properties. These properties depend on the number of valence electrons per formula unit allowing tuning of properties through composition and alloying. The Heusler lattice parameters span many metal oxides and semiconductors and their crystal structures are closely related. For spintronic applications, the magnetic and half-me...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - June 30, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research

Selective nucleation and self-organized crystallization
In this study, after briefly reviewing the fundamentals of nucleation theory, we take a few examples to show the significance of concave-corner-mediated nucleation in both self-organized formation of long-range-ordered patterns and in self-assembly of metallic nano wire array. We show that successive concave-corner-mediated nucleation on the growth front is an important mechanism leading to many long-range ordering effects in crystallization. This mechanism can also be applied in fabricating metallic nano wires with specific geometry, including straight metallic wire array with tunable line width and nanowires with periodi...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - June 29, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research

Mesostructured crystals: Growth processes and features
Publication date: Available online 20 June 2016 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials Author(s): Hiroaki Imai Sophisticated architectures consisting of oriented small crystalline blocks are widely observed in biological and biomimetic minerals. Here, mesostructured crystals are categorized in a new family of crystalline states as intermediate between faceted single crystals and polycrystals that are random arrangements of small grains. A variety of hierarchical architectures, such as mesocrystals consisting of isolated nanoblocks, granular textures of biominerals, and helical crystals, a...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - June 20, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research

In-situ liquid phase TEM observations of nucleation and growth processes
Publication date: Available online 20 June 2016 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials Author(s): James J. De Yoreo Nucleation and growth of crystals is a pervasive phenomenon in the synthesis of man-made materials, as well as mineral formation within geochemical and biological environments. Over the past two decades, numerous ex situ studies of crystallization have concluded that nucleation and growth pathways are more complex than envisioned within classical models. The recent development of in situ liquid phase TEM (LP-TEM) has led to new insights into such pathways by enabling direct,...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - June 20, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research

In-situ observation of crystal growth and the mechanism
Publication date: Available online 17 June 2016 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials Author(s): Katsuo Tsukamoto The spatial and time resolution in the measurements of growth rates and the observation of surface morphologies and the associated transport phenomena reflecting their growth mechanism have been developed because advanced microscopes and interferometers have attained nano-scale resolution. The first part covers the historical background how in-situ observation of crystal growth at molecular-level by optical and other scanning methods had been developed for understanding of cr...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - June 16, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research

Microchannel epitaxy
Publication date: Available online 11 June 2016 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials Author(s): Shigeya Naritsuka Microchannel epitaxy (MCE) is an outstanding technique for dislocation reduction during heteroepitaxial growth when there is a large lattice mismatch. This paper describes the MCE mechanism in detail together with experimental results. Directional growth is a principal concern of MCE, and is enabled through the assessment and control of the elementary processes of crystal growth. Vertical microchannel epitaxy (V-MCE) involves perpendicular growth relative to a substrate, fro...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - June 10, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research

III-V compound semiconductors: Growth and structures
Publication date: Available online 6 June 2016 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials Author(s): Thomas F. Kuech The semiconductors formed from group 13 metals and from group 15 anions, referred to as the III-V semiconductors, have found use in a broad range of technologies. Their versatility arises from the wide range of optical and electronic properties accessed through the formation of multi-component alloys. These alloys can be synthesized using the epitaxial growth techniques for devices consisting of several-to-hundreds of highly controlled individual layers monolithically formed in...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - June 6, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research

Thermodynamics -for understanding crystal growth-
Publication date: Available online 7 June 2016 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials Author(s): Tatau Nishinaga To understand what entropy is, thermodynamical entropy was derived from Boltzmann's entropy formula. After defining the Helmholtz and the Gibbs free energies, we calculated the formation Gibbs free energies of an equilibrium and a non-equilibrium nucleus following Toschev's approach taking a water droplet as an example. It is demonstrated that the Gibbs free energy for the formation of a cluster takes the maximum as the cluster radius is increased. The cluster at this maximum i...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - June 6, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research

Observing crystal growth processes in computer simulations
Publication date: Available online 3 June 2016 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials Author(s): Hiroki Nada, Hitoshi Miura, Jun Kawano, Toshiharu Irisawa This paper presents the outline of a practical course on computer simulation that will be given at the 16th International Summer School on Crystal Growth (ISSCG-16). The aim of this course is to understand crystal growth processes from the molecular level to the macroscopic level through computer simulations. We will mainly study molecular-scale crystal growth and nucleation processes by using molecular dynamics simulations and ma...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - June 3, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research

The role of surface and interface structure in crystal growth
Publication date: Available online 3 June 2016 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials Author(s): Elias Vlieg Crystal growth occurs at the interface of a crystal and its growth medium. Due to the abrupt termination at the surface, at the interface the properties of the crystal will typically deviate from the bulk and this can affect the growth behaviour. Also the properties of the growth medium at the interface will typically differ from the bulk. In growth from solution, for example, the liquid will show ordering induced by the crystal surface or have a different composition. Here techniq...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - June 3, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research

In-situ observation of crystal surfaces by optical microscopy
Publication date: Available online 3 June 2016 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials Author(s): Gen Sazaki, Ken Nagashima, Ken-ichiro Murata, Yoshinori Furukawa In this experimental course, attendees will learn how to obtain useful information about growth processes of crystals using ordinary optical microscopes, which are usually available in laboratories. We will demonstrate how thicknesses of crystals can be estimated from interference colors. We will also show in-situ observations of spiral steps and strain distributions by differential interference contrast microscopy and pola...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - June 3, 2016 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research