MedeA® Application Notes for Magnetic & Optical Properties

Patrick Soukiassian, Erich Wimmer Edvige Celasco, Claudia Giallombardo, Simon Bonanni, Luca Vattuone, Letizia Savio, Anontio Tejeda, Mathieu Silly, Marie D’angelo, Fausto Sirotti, Mario Rocca

Nanostructuring a surface is a key and mandatory engineering step toward advances in nanotechnology. A team of french and italian scientists and of a franco-american company has just shown that hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) induces the opening of nanotunnels below the surface of an advanced semiconductor, silicon carbide (SiC). Such a finding is an especially interesting one, particularly in views of the specific properties of SiC. These investigations have been performed using advanced experimental tools such as synchrotron radiation and vibrational spectroscopy techniques, and state-of-the-art theoretical simulations. Depending on the H/D SiC surface exposures, these nanotunnels undergo through a sequence of semiconducting/metallic/semiconducting transitions. Such nanotunnels open very promising prospects toward applications in electronic, chemistry, storage, sensors and biotechnology.