Advanced diffusion studies with isotopically controlled materials

The use of enriched stable isotopes combined with modern epitaxial deposition and depth profiling techniques enables the preparation of material heterostructures, highly appropriate for self- and foreign-atom diffusion experiments. Over the past decade we have performed diffusion studies with isotopically enriched elemental and compound semiconductors. In the present paper, we highlight our recent results and demonstrate that the use of isotopically enriched materials ushered in a new era in the study of diffusion in solids, which yields greater insight into the properties of native defects and their roles in diffusion. Our approach of studying atomic diffusion is not limited to semiconductors and can be applied also to other material systems. Current areas of our research concern the diffusion in the silicon–germanium alloys and glassy materials such as silicon dioxide and ion conducting silicate glasses.