Germanium is a tetravalent metalloid element (atomic number 32) with electronic configuration [Ar]3d¹⁰4s²4p², occupying group 14 of the periodic table. It forms predominantly covalent bonds and exhibits semiconductor behavior with an indirect band gap of about 0.66 eV at 300 K, making it suitable for high-speed electronics, infrared optics, and detector technologies. In materials science and device physics, germanium is used in SiGe and Ge-on-Si heterostructures to engineer band structures, carrier mobilities, and strain states. Its chemistry features oxidation states primarily of +2 and +4, enabling formation of organogermanium compounds, oxides, and halides relevant to synthesis and thin-film deposition.
Most modern semiconductors are fabricated of or on silicon (Si), but as devices get smaller and denser, they dissipate more power and, as a result, are reaching their physical limits. Germanium (Ge)—once used in the first ...
Nanomaterials
Nov 24, 2025
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An international team of researchers from Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany), Tohoku University (Japan), and École Polytechnique de Montréal (Canada) has made a significant discovery in semiconductor science by revealing ...
Condensed Matter
Oct 6, 2025
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If you start with a two-dimensional ribbon and make it narrower and narrower, when does it stop being a ribbon and start being a one-dimensional line? Scientists from Utrecht University and the University of Twente made one-atom-thick ...
Nanophysics
Mar 3, 2025
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Ever since physicist Ernest Rutherford discovered the atomic nucleus in 1911, studying its structure and behavior has remained a challenging task. More than a century later, even with today's high-tech tools for researching ...
General Physics
Feb 19, 2025
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Searching for the elusive neutrino takes on many forms. Detectors consisting of many tons of gallium are used in several experiments because neutrino interactions can occur on the stable gallium-71 (71Ga) nucleus and transform ...
General Physics
Jun 5, 2024
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The color centers of diamond are the focus of an increasing number of research studies, due to their potential for developing quantum technologies. Some works have particularly explored the use of negatively-charged group-IV ...
TU Wien (Vienna) has succeeded in making a new type of material usable for chip technology. This enables faster, more efficient computers and new types of quantum devices.
Nanophysics
Nov 8, 2022
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Organohalides are widely adopted to serve as halide source in traditional three-precursors route to obtain metal halide perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs).
Nanomaterials
Jan 21, 2022
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A novel electronic component from TU Wien (Vienna) could be an important key to the era of quantum information technology: Using a special manufacturing process, pure germanium is bonded with aluminum in a way that atomically ...
Nanomaterials
Oct 11, 2021
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