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Molecular dynamic simulations of Y2O3 in bcc Fe and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations were used to understand the structure of Y2O3 nano-clusters in an oxide dispersion strengthened steel matrix. The study showed that Y2O3 nano-clusters below 2 nm were completely disordered. Y2O3 nano-clusters above 2 nm, however, form a core-shell structure, with a shell thickness of 0.5–0.7 nm that is independent of nano-cluster size. Y2O3 nano-clusters were surrounded by off-lattice Fe atoms, further increasing the stability of these nano-clusters. TEM was used to corroborate our simulation results and showed a crossover from a disordered nano-cluster to a core-shell structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To effectively passivate the technologically important GaAs (001) surfaces, in situ deposition of Al2O3 was carried out with molecular beam epitaxy. The impacts of initial GaAs surface reconstruction and post-deposition annealing have been systematically investigated. The corresponding interfacial state density (Dit) were derived by applying the conductance method at 25 and 150 °C on both p-type and n-type GaAs metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors to establish the Dit spectra in proximity of the critical midgap region. We show that significant reduction of Dit near the midgap is achieved by applying an optimized thermal annealing on samples grown on a Ga-rich (4×6) reconstructed surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]