No abstract

Semiconducting βFeSi2 has been successfully grown on a Si (111) substrate. It has been proven that under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, the solid phase epitaxy temperature can be lowered to ∼800 K, where only the βFeSi2 phase is stabilized. The disilicide formation was monitored in situ by various surface-sensitive techniques such as low-energy electron diffraction, Auger electron spectroscopy, and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. The epitaxial relationships were ascertained by transmission electron diffraction and microscopy including high-resolution cross-sectional image. The results show the epitaxy of βFeSi2 (110) and (101) planes parallel to the Si (111) plane. The disilicide-silicon heterojunction displays an atomically abrupt interface.

Low-temperature transport measurements (down to 18 mK) are performed in CoSi2 ultrathin films (down to 1.4 nm) epitaxially grown on silicon substrates. The low-temperature residual resistivity exhibits little dependence on the CoSi2 film thickness down to 10 nm. However, a steep increase is found below 10 nm, which is not taken into account by the Fuchs–Sondheimer [Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 34, 100 (1938)] boundary scattering theory. Correlatively, the superconducting critical temperature of these CoSi2 films is abruptly depressed in the same thickness range. These two effects are phenomenologically explained by the presence of a perturbed layer, i.e., a CoSi2 interfacial layer in which the electronic transport properties are dramatically diminished.

The needs and business goals of France Telecom R&D are centered around achieving enhanced customer satisfaction and greater competitiveness. These key management concerns become drivers that initiate software process improvement with goals of higher software quality, lower development and maintenance costs, shorter time to market, and increased predictability and control of software products and processes.Software process improvement is considered as a continuous process; France Telecom R&D moves continually around a stabilization cycle, Standardize Do Check Act (SDCA) and an improvement cycle, Plan Do Check Act(PDCA). Within these cycles, in a series of steps of specific improvement, actions such as introducing new or improved practices into software processes are accomplished. The software process model is based on the ISO/IEC 12207 standard 'Software Life-Cycle Processes', and the assessment method uses the ISO/IEC 15504 standard 'Software process Assessment'. Some new processes are defined and used in the area of software engineering.

Ultrathin films (≲50 monolayers) of Co have been deposited on atomically clean 7×7 Si(111) surfaces at room temperature and characterized by in situ surface techniques such as Auger electron spectroscopy and low-energy electron diffraction. Formation of a boundary CoSi2-like phase is surprisingly found at a very low coverage range (≲4 monolayers) as evidenced by low-temperature transport measurements (resistivity and Hall effect) and also by cross-sectional high-resolution transmission electron microscopy.