title: Observation of self-assembled core-shell structures in epitaxially embedded TbErAs nanoparticles.
abstract: Self-assembled core-shell structured rare-earth nanoparticles (TbErAs) are observed in a III-V semiconductor host matrix (In0.53Ga0.47As) nominally lattice-matched to InP, grown via molecular beam epitaxy. Atom probe tomography demonstrates that the TbErAs nanoparticles have a core-shell structure, as seen both in the tomographic atom-by-atom reconstruction and concentration profiles. A simple thermodynamic model is created to determine when it is energetically favorable to have core-shell structures; the results strongly agree with the observations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, 201 Dupont Hall, Newark, Delaware, 19716, USA.
authors.forename: Pernell
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dongmo
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hartshorne
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cristiani
authors.forename: Michael L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Jablonski
authors.forename: Cory
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bomberger
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Isheim
authors.forename: David N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Seidman
authors.forename: Mitra L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Taheri
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zide
keywords: atom probe tomography; core-shell structures; molecular beam epitaxy; nanoparticles; rare-earth; terahertz