A group at Bell Laboratories has reported making single‐crystal monolayer alloys of gallium arsenide and aluminum arsenide. This work could be the forerunner of a whole class of synthetic inorganic crystals that are identical in composition but distinct in structure and properties from naturally occurring compounds. Manmade superlattices, which consist of alternating layers of monocrystalline semiconductors, had been built at IBM and at Bell Labs earlier (PHYSICS TODAY, August 1973, page 20 and August 1975, page 17), but each layer was considerably thicker. The new crystals, according to Joseph Giordmaine (Bell Labs), differ in both their short‐range and long‐range order from their parent crystals, whereas the properties of the thicker superlattices can be largely predicted from the bulk properties of the alternating layers.
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February 1977
February 01 1977
Bell Labs reports manmade single‐crystal monolayer alloys
Physics Today 30 (2), 17–18 (1977);