Strong, Layered Films Now Crack-Resistant (3 of 6) (IMAGE)
Caption
This is a scanning electron micrograph in perspective view of 8-micrometer-tall Ge crystals grown epitaxially on Si pillars. The array was obtained under conditions of self-limited lateral expansion, limiting the distance between nearest neighbors to about 50 nanometers, thus preventing crystals from fusing and forming a continuous film. A remnant of an etched sample adhered by chance to the first row of crystals. It consists of a Ge crystal on top of a Si pillar exhibiting sidewall ripples formed during deep reactive ion etching of the substrate. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the March 16, 2012, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by C.V. Falub at Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule Zurich (ETH Zurich) in Zurich, Switzerland, and colleagues was titled, "Scaling Hetero-Epitaxy from Layers to Three-Dimensional Crystals."
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