%0 Journal Article %T VACANCY-MEDIATED ATOMIC TRANSPORT IN NANO-CRYSTALS %+ Institut des Matériaux, de Microélectronique et des Nanosciences de Provence (IM2NP) %A Portavoce, A. %A Perrin-Toinin, J %A Hoummada, K. %< avec comité de lecture %@ 1606-5131 %J Reviews on Advanced Materials Science %8 2016-03-10 %D 2016 %Z Physics [physics]/Condensed Matter [cond-mat]/Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]Journal articles %X Atomic transport in nano-crystals is still poorly studied experimentally. However, the knowledge of atomic transport kinetic and of the mechanisms allowing atoms to move in a volume exhibiting nano-scale dimensions (< 100 nm) is important for i) improving our fundamental knowledge concerning point defects' formation and migration energies, and atom-point defect interactions in nano-structures, as well as for ii) predicting mass transport in nano-structures, allowing the design of nano-structure fabrication processes to be developed at lower cost. In this article, atom probe tomography measurements were used to investigate the Ge distribution in 40 nm-wide Si nano-crystals in which the Ge flux was found to be ten times faster than in the bulk of a Si mono-crystal. The Ge atoms were found to be randomly distributed in the nano-crystals. No extended defect was found being able to explain an increase of Ge transport kinetic in the nano-crystals. Consequently, a scenario based on a higher equilibrium vacancy concentration at the nano-crystal surface (or interface) is proposed in order to explain the faster atomic kinetic measured in Si nano-crystals. %G English %2 https://amu.hal.science/hal-02385245/document %2 https://amu.hal.science/hal-02385245/file/RAMS50_69.pdf %L hal-02385245 %U https://amu.hal.science/hal-02385245 %~ UNIV-TLN %~ CNRS %~ UNIV-AMU %~ IM2NP