Figure 1: Three examples of input 3D mesh and tactile saliency map (two views each) computed by our approach. Left: "Grasp" saliency map of a mug model. Middle: "Press" saliency map of a game controller model. Right: "Touch" saliency map of a statue model. The blue to red colors (jet colormap) correspond to relative saliency values where red is most salient.

The technologically useful properties of a crystalline solid depend upon the concentration of defects it contains. Here we show that defect concentrations as deep as 0.5 microm within a semiconductor can be profoundly influenced by gas adsorption. Self-diffusion rates within silicon show that nitrogen atoms adsorbed at less than 1% of a monolayer lead to defect concentrations that vary controllably over several orders of magnitude. The results show that previous measurements of diffusion and defect thermodynamics in semiconductors may have suffered from neglect of adsorption effects.

A mechanism is described by which interface electronic properties can affect bulk semiconductor behavior. In particular, experimental measurements by photoreflectance of Si(100)-SiO 2 interfaces show how a controllable degree of band bending can be introduced near the interface by ion bombardment and annealing. The resulting electric field near the interface can affect dopant concentration profiles deep within the semiconductor bulk by drastically changing the effective interfacial boundary condition for annihilation of charged interstitial atoms formed during bombardment. Kinetic measurements of band-bending evolution during annealing show that the bending persists for substantial periods even above 1000°C. Unusually low activation energies for the evolution point to a distribution of energies for healing of bombardment-generated interface defects. The findings have significant implications for p-n junction formation during complementary metal oxide semiconductor device processing.

High-temperature real-time observation of surface defects induced by single ion irradiation using scanningtunneling-microscope/ion-gun combined system Point defects such as vacancies and interstitial atoms serve as primary mediators of solid-state diffusion in many materials. In some cases, the defects encounter surfaces where annihilation can occur. Quantification of annihilation rates presents formidable challenges, since point defect concentrations are typically low and therefore difficult to monitor directly. The present work develops a method for such quantification based upon measurements of diffusional profile spreading of a foreign species, using as an example isotopically labeled silicon implanted into a silicon matrix. Optimal experimental design techniques together with maximum-likelihood estimation indicate that the loss probability for Si interstitials on nitrogen-covered Si͑100͒ lies at 7.1ϫ 10 −4 .

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