Silicon °C respectively are the second-highest among all the metalloids and nonmetals, being only surpassed by boron. Silicon is the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, but very rarely occurs as the pure element in the Earth's crust. It is most widely distributed in dusts, sands, planetoids, and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide (silica) or silicates. More than 90% of the Earth's crust is composed of silicate minerals, making silicon the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust (about 28% by mass) after oxygen. Most silicon is used commercially without being separated, and often with
Germanium-tin have already been demonstrated. In addition, germanium-tin light emitting diodes operating at room temperature have also been reported. Germanium-tin Germanium-tin is an alloy of the elements germanium and tin, both located in group 14 of the periodic table. It is only thermodynamically stable under a small composition range. Despite this limitation, it has useful properties for band gap and strain engineering of silicon integrated optoelectronic and microelectronic semiconductor devices. Germanium-tin alloys must be kinetically stabilized in order to prevent decomposition. Therefore, low temperature molecular beam epitaxy or chemical vapor deposition techniques are typically used for their synthesis. Germanium-tin alloys have