Alloy is sometimes a result of the sizes of the atoms in the alloy, because larger atoms exert a compressive force on neighboring atoms, and smaller atoms exert a tensile force on their neighbors, helping the alloy resist deformation. Sometimes alloys may exhibit marked differences in behavior even when small amounts of one element are present. For example, impurities in semiconducting ferromagnetic alloys lead to different properties, as first predicted by White, Hogan, Suhl, Tian Abrie and Nakamura. Some alloys are made by melting and mixing two or more metals. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, was the first alloy
Silicon-tin Silicon-tin Silicon-tin or SiSn, is in general a term used for an alloy of the form SiSn. The molecular ratio of tin in silicon can vary based on the fabrication methods or doping conditions. In general, SiSn is known to be intrinsically semiconducting, and even small amounts of Sn doping in silicon can also be used to create strain in the silicon lattice and alter the charge transport properties. Several theoretical works have shown SiSn to be semiconducting. These mainly include DFT-based studies. The band structures obtained using these works show a change in band gap of silicon with the