By using solid phase epitaxy of thin Fe films and molecular beam epitaxy of Si, a p⁺-Si/p-Si/β-FeSi₂ nanocrystallites/n-Si(111) diode structure was fabricated. Transmission electron microscopy data confirmed a well-defined multilayered structure with embedded nanocrystallites of two typical sizes: 3–4 and 15–20 nm, and almost coherent epitaxy of the nanocrystallites with the Si matrix. The diode at zero bias conditions exhibited a current responsivity of 1.7 mA/W, an external quantum efficiency of about 0.2%, and a specific detectivity of 1.2 × 10⁹ cm × Hz^1/2/W at a wavelength of 1300 nm at room temperature. In the avalanche mode, the responsivity reached up to 20 mA/W (2% in terms of efficiency) with a value of avalanche gain equal to 5. The data obtained indicate that embedding of β-FeSi₂ nanocrystallites into the depletion region of the Si p-n junction results in expansion of the spectral sensitivity up to 1600 nm and an increase of the photoresponse by more than two orders of magnitude in comparison with a conventional Si p-n junction. Thereby, fabricated structure combines advantage of the silicon photodiode functionality and simplicity with near infrared light detection capability of β-FeSi₂.

Nanocrystalline GaSb films were grown on Si(001) from the stoichiometric Ga–Sb mixture using solid-phase epitaxy at temperatures of 200–500 °C. Use of the solid-phase epitaxy method allowed the suppression of Ga surface diffusion and prevention of intense Sb desorption. At the annealing temperature of 300 °C, a 14-nm-thick GaSb film aggregates, while a 20-nm-thick GaSb film remains continuous with a roughness of 1.74 nm. A GaSb film with a thickness of 20 nm consists of crystalline grains with a size of 9–16 nm. They were compressed by ~2%. For some GaSb grains, new epitaxial relationships have been found: GaSb $\left(111\right)$ ||Si $\left(11\overline{1}\right)$ and GaSb $\left[11\overline{2}\right]$ ||Si $\left[1\overline{1}0\right]$ , GaSb $\left(113\right)$ ||Si $\left(11\overline{1}\right)$ and GaSb $\left[1\overline{1}0\right]$ ||Si $\left[1\overline{1}0\right]$ , and GaSb $\left(11\overline{1}\right)$ ||Si $\left(002\right)$ and GaSb $\left[1\overline{1}0\right]$ ||Si $\left[1\overline{1}0\right]$ .

Formation of semiconductor calcium silicide Ca2Si on Si(111)7×7 and 2/3√3-Mg surface phases and bulk Mg2Si film was studied. Conditions of high quality Ca2Si film growth were found. Formation of Ca surface phase was demonstrated at the initial stage of Ca2Si film growth on 2/3√3-Mg surface phase at narrow temperature range. Band gap of this surface phase and 2/3√3-Mg were obtained