The method of plane-transverse bending was used to measure the strength of thin single-crystal plates of undoped InSb with a crystallographic orientation of (100). It was found that the strength of the plates (thickness ≤ 800 μm) depends on their processing. Using a full processing cycle (grinding and chemical polishing) allows to increase the strength of InSb plates by 2 times (from 3.0 to 6.4 kg/mm2). It is shown that the dependence of strength on processing for wafers with (100) orientation is similar to this dependence for wafers (111), while the strength of wafers (111) is 2 times higher. The contact profilometry method was used to measure the roughness of thin plates, which also passed successive processing steps. It was found that during a full cycle of processing, the roughness of InSb plates decreases (Ra from 0.6 to 0.04 μm), leading to a general smoothing of the surface roughness. The strength and roughness of the (100) InSb and GaAs wafers are compared. It was found that the strength of GaAs cut wafers is 2 times higher than the strength of InSb cut wafers and slightly increases after a full cycle of their processing. It was shown that the roughness of GaAs and InSb plates after a full cycle of surface treatment is significantly reduced: 10 times for InSb due to overall surface leveling and 3 times for GaAs (Rz from 2.4 to 0.8 μm) due to a decrease in the peak component. Conducting a full cycle of processing InSb plates can increase their strength by removing broken layers by sequential operations and reducing the risk of mechanical damage.
Heusler alloys crystallize in a close-packed cubic structure, having a four-atom basis forming a face-centred cubic lattice. By selecting different composite elements, Heusler alloys provide a large family of members for frontier research of spintronics and magnetic materials and devices. In this paper, the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of a novel quaternary Heusler alloy, PdMnTiAl, have been investigated using a first-principles computational materials calculation. It was found that the stable ordered structure is a non-magneticY-type1, in good agreement with the Slater–Pauling rule. From the band structure and the density of states, it is predicted that thisY-type1 configuration is a new gapless semi-metal material. Furthermore, it was discovered that the Pd–Mn swap-disordered structure is more stable than theY-type1 structure. The present work provides a guide for experiments to synthesize and characterize this Heusler alloy.
Enhanced current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magnetoresistance by improvement of atomic order of Co2FeSi Heusler alloy film through Ag doping