Giant Volume Magnetostriction Caused by Itinerant Electron Metamagnetic Transition and Pronounced Invar Effects in La(Fex-Si1-x)13 Compounds

An ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition (UHV/CVD) system is developed and the details of its construction and operation are reported. Using high purity SiH4 and GeH4 reactant gases, the Si0.82 Ge0.18 layer is deposited at 550°C. With the measurements by double crystal X-ray diffraction (DCXRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) techniques, it is shown that the crystalline quality of the SiGe layer is good, and the underlying SiGe/Si heterointerface is sharply defined.