Oxide multilayers composed of ferromagnetic metallic layers of ${\mathrm{La}}_{0.67}{\mathrm{Sr}}_{0.33}{\mathrm{MnO}}_3$ (LSMO) and superconducting cuprate ${\mathrm{YBa}}_2{\mathrm{Cu}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_7$ (YBCO) were grown on (1 0 0) ${\mathrm{LaAlO}}_3$ substrates by high-pressure dc sputtering. We have investigated structural, transport, and magnetic properties of a series of samples in which the layer thickness of LSMO is fixed at 16 unit cells and that of YBCO varied from 1 to 8 unit cells. Exchange-induced unidirectional anisotropy in LSMO/YBCO superlattices has been demonstrated. Observation of an exchange biasing effect in LSMO/YBCO superlattices supports an existence of interlayer exchange coupling between LSMO layers through YBCO superconducting spacer layers.

An arrangement of self-assembled GaN nanowires (NWs) grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on a Si(111) substrate is studied as a function of the temperature at which the substrate is nitridized before GaN growth. We show that the NWs grow with the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate surface independently of nitridation temperature with only a slight improvement in tilt coherency for high nitridation temperatures. A much larger influence of the substrate nitridation process on the in-plane arrangement of NWs is found. For high (850 °C) and medium (450 °C) nitridation temperatures angular twist distributions are relatively narrow and NWs are epitaxially aligned to the substrate in the same way as commonly observed in GaN on Si(111) planar layers with an AlN buffer. However, if the substrate is nitridized at low temperature (~150 °C) the epitaxial relationship with the substrate is lost and an almost random in-plane orientation of GaN NWs is observed. These results are correlated with a microstructure of silicon nitride film created on the substrate as the result of the nitridation procedure.

Dense and entirely nanocrystalline diamond–SiC ceramics were synthesized by the infiltration of liquid Si into the nanodiamond body under high-pressure (77 kbar) and high-temperature (1400–2000 °C) conditions. Based on x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy observations, a model of as-synthesized material is proposed, where individual polycrystalline diamond particles are bonded via SiC–diamond nanolayers. The nanolayers provide a very high hardness of the entire specimen up to 51 GPa. The phenomenon of self-stop Si infiltration was detected in this system. This phenomenon can be explained by the closure of pores near the boundary between molten Si and diamond nanopowder due to the formation of SiC inside the pores.

ZnTe nanowires with an average diameter of about $30\mathrm{nm}$ and lengths above $1\mu \mathrm{m}$ were grown on GaAs(100) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy. The growth process was based on the Au-catalyzed vapor-liquid-solid mechanism. A thin gold layer ($3–20\mathrm{\AA }$ thick) annealed in high vacuum prior to the nanowire growth was used as a source of catalytic nanoparticles. The nanowires are inclined about 55° to the (100) substrate surface normal. They have a zinc-blende crystal structure and their growth axis is ⟨111⟩.