Observation of self-assembled core-shell structures in epitaxially embedded TbErAs nanoparticles

Pernell Dongmo; Matthew Hartshorne; Thomas Cristiani; Michael L Jablonski; Cory Bomberger; Dieter Isheim; David N Seidman; Mitra L Taheri; Joshua Zide

doi:10.1002/smll.201400891

Observation of self-assembled core-shell structures in epitaxially embedded TbErAs nanoparticles

Small. 2014 Dec 10;10(23):4920-5. doi: 10.1002/smll.201400891. Epub 2014 Aug 8.

Authors

Pernell Dongmo¹, Matthew Hartshorne, Thomas Cristiani, Michael L Jablonski, Cory Bomberger, Dieter Isheim, David N Seidman, Mitra L Taheri, Joshua Zide

Affiliation

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, 201 Dupont Hall, Newark, Delaware, 19716, USA.

PMID: 25104265
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201400891

Abstract

Self-assembled core-shell structured rare-earth nanoparticles (TbErAs) are observed in a III-V semiconductor host matrix (In0.53Ga0.47As) nominally lattice-matched to InP, grown via molecular beam epitaxy. Atom probe tomography demonstrates that the TbErAs nanoparticles have a core-shell structure, as seen both in the tomographic atom-by-atom reconstruction and concentration profiles. A simple thermodynamic model is created to determine when it is energetically favorable to have core-shell structures; the results strongly agree with the observations.

Keywords: atom probe tomography; core-shell structures; molecular beam epitaxy; nanoparticles; rare-earth; terahertz.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.