Diffusion and Segregation Measurements in Semiconductor Nano-Structures and Devices

Dear Colleagues,

Progress in semiconductor research and development of improved (opto)electronic devices rely on three foundations: New materials, novel design principles, and miniaturization according to what is commonly known as Moore’s Law. As devices shrink further, their properties will be more and more determined by individual atomic movements across interfaces, at surfaces, and near lattice defects. If a single atom ‘misbehaves’ by changing location, a nano-scale device may spontaneously fail.

The understanding of such atomic diffusion and segregation processes has been furthered by two converging developments: The resolution, sensitivity, and reliability of microscopic measurements have been extended right down to atomic dimensions by the development of new and the improvement of existing microscopic imaging and spectroscopy methods; at the same time, computers have become more powerful, so the behavior of larger agglomerates of many atoms can now be simulated. There is now sufficient overlap between experiments and theory on the nanometer scale to compare both on an equal footing, for which reproducible atomic-scale measurements are required.

This Special Issue of Nanomaterials aims at documenting recent advances in experimentally assessing the diffusion and segregation of atoms in semiconducting systems on the nanometer scale, with a focus on quantitative measurements by techniques with high lateral spatial resolution. This is important to measure and control atomic movements in individual nano-structures, along specific lattice directions, across well-defined interfaces, and to individual lattice defects, such as dislocations or special grain boundaries.

Dr. Thomas Walther
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Phenomena: activation energy; annealing; diffusion mechanisms; doping; Gibssian interfacial excess; grain boundary segregation; interdiffusion; lattice defects; nitridation; oxidation; point defects; silicidation; surface segregation
• Material systems: semiconducting nanowires; quantum dots; quantum wells; transistor structures
• Methods: Auger electron spectroscopy; analytical electron microscopy; electron energy-loss spectroscopy; energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy; high-resolution electron microscopy; radioactive tracers; scanning probe microscopy; Z-contrast