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Thermal stability of simple tetragonal and hexagonal diamond germanium

Journal Article · · Journal of Applied Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5002705· OSTI ID:1409261
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1]
  1. The Australian National Univ., Acton, ACT (Australia)
  2. Univ. of Melbourne, VIC (Australia)
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  4. The Australian National Univ., Acton, ACT (Australia); RMIT Univ., Melbourne, VIC (Australia)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Here, exotic phases of germanium, that form under high pressure but persist under ambient conditions, are of technological interest due to their unique optical and electrical properties. The thermal evolution and stability of two of these exotic Ge phases, the simple tetragonal (st12) and hexagonal diamond (hd) phases, are investigated in detail. These metastable phases, formed by high pressure decompression in either a diamond anvil cell or by nanoindentation, are annealed at temperatures ranging from 280 to 320 °C for st12-Ge and 200 to 550 °C for hd-Ge. In both cases, the exotic phases originated from entirely pure Ge precursor materials. Raman microspectroscopy is used to monitor the phase changes ex situ following annealing. Our results show that hd-Ge synthesized via a pure form of a-Ge first undergoes a subtle change in structure and then an irreversible phase transformation to dc-Ge with an activation energy of (4.3 ± 0.2) eV at higher temperatures. St12-Ge was found to transform to dc-Ge with an activation energy of (1.44 ± 0.08) eV. Taken together with results from previous studies, this study allows for intriguing comparisons with silicon and suggests promising technological applications.
Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1409261
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1407838
Journal Information:
Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 17 Vol. 122; ISSN 0021-8979
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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