Foundations of Materials Science and Engineering

This book is the result of twenty years of experience on the fabrication of active micro-cooling systems, the fabrication of electronic devices (radiation and magnetic sensors, transistors), the fabrication of optical devices (new green LED), and the adaptation of silicon simulation software to diamond. This includes the integration of the current transport models of diamond. The book emphasize the subjects' substrate selection, mechanical and chemical structuring, doping, and metallization. Also included is simulation as a tool to predict the results of the technological steps. Though a state of the art method is far behind in comparison to the silicon and gallium arsenide growth we assume the same state as exists in these technologies, namely that the diamond substrates are commercially available.

The addition of supersaturated carbon to silicon or silicon-germanium thin films leads to a new class of semiconducting materials. This new material can alleviate some of the constraints on strained Si1-xGex and may help to open up new fields of device applications for heteroepitaxial Si-based systems. Basic growth problems, as well as the mechanical and electrical properties of Si1-yCy and Si1-x-yGexCy layers grown pseudomorphically onto Si(001), have been reviewed. The incorporation of carbon can be used (i) to enhance SiGe layer properties, (ii) to obtain layers with new properties, or (iii) to control dopant diffusion in microelectronic devices. The phenomenon of suppressed boron diffusion in carbon-rich epitaxial layers can be used to increase the performance of SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs). When compared with SiGe technologies, the addition of carbon offers a significantly greater flexibility in process design and a greater latitude in processing margins.

The rapidly growing interest in bulk amorphous alloys has increasingly called for a substantial review to be made of the work published during the last ten years. Such a definitive review has now been published in two volumes.

Permanent magnets play an increasingly important role in modern society because they are vital components of numerous domestic and industrial devices. The last few decades have witnessed a quite extraordinary development in the use of hard magnetic materials, especially after the advent of rare earth permanent magnets. The rare earth permanent magnets are unequalled because they combine a high magnetization with an extraordinary magnetic hardness which allows the use of such magnets having the extreme shapes and small dimensions as required in modern devices.

Interest in bulk amorphous alloys has increased rapidly throughout the world and these materials have now gained a position of great importance in basic science and engineering materials technology. Bulk amorphous alloys based upon the Zr-Al-Ni-Cu, Zr-(Ti,Nb)-Al-Ni-Cu and Zr-Ti-Ni-Cu-Be systems have already achieved wide commercial success as components of various tehnical accessories ranging from sporting goods to optical instruments.
Here is a state-of-the art review on this new group of materials, covering all areas of interest, ranging from the synthesis of these special alloys and their fundamental properties, to their engineering characteristics and applications. This work will therefore be of equal interest to those who wish to become fully acquainted with the subject, and to those who are already actively engaged in the field.

From being mere geological curiosities one hundred years ago, zeolites have progressed to their present status as indispensable absorbents and catalysts both in key oil- refining process technologies and consumer detergent industries - to mention only two. As new families are synthesized, modern structural methods increase our understanding of their formation, structure and function. Furthermore, as new industrial uses have been found, the literature on zeolites, and on related zeotypes, has also grown - particularly over the past decade. Consequently, it is now a truism that one cannot review the subject of zeolites without being considerably selective.

The investigation of nanocrystalline materials has been an extremely active field during the past two decades as it promises to yield new and exciting properties, which will both test the scientific understanding of the behaviour of materials in general, and offer new scope for applications. While considerable progress has been made in basic understanding, the shift from fundamental science to technological application has been slow, especially with regard to exploitation of the mechanical behaviour of these materials.

It is the aim of the present book to make the reader familiar with the application of a model developed by Andries Miedema which opened completely new perspectives in materials science. For example, a result that was obtained by a one-month run on a Cray 1 supercomputer turned out to be only a few kilo Joules different from the outcome by Miedema’s model, obtained within a few minutes by use of a pocket calculator.