The ternary semiconductor alloy Al0.25Ga0.75N has been analyzed by means of correlated photoluminescence spectroscopy and atom probe tomography (APT). We find that the composition measured by APT is strongly dependent on the surface electric field, leading to erroneous measurements of the alloy composition at high field, due to the different evaporation behaviors of Al and Ga atoms. After showing how a biased measurement of the alloy content leads to inaccurate predictions on the optical properties of the material, we develop a correction procedure which yields consistent transition and localization energies for the alloy photoluminescence.
2D materials have opened a new field in materials science with outstanding scientific and technological impact. A largely explored route for the preparation of 2D materials is the exfoliation of layered crystals with weak forces between their layers. However, its application to covalent crystals remains elusive. Herein, a further step is taken by introducing the exfoliation of germanium, a narrow‐bandgap semiconductor presenting a 3D diamond‐like structure with strong covalent bonds. Pure α‐germanium is exfoliated following a simple one‐step procedure assisted by wet ball‐milling, allowing gram‐scale fabrication of high‐quality layers with large lateral dimensions and nanometer thicknesses. The generated flakes are thoroughly characterized by different techniques, giving evidence that the new 2D material exhibits bandgaps that depend on both the crystallographic direction and the number of layers. Besides potential technological applications, this work is also of interest for the search of 2D materials with new properties.
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