This work deals with the preparation of thin cerium oxide films on the Cu(110) single crystal. Physico-chemical properties of this system were studied by surface science techniques (XPS, UPS, ARUPS, LEED, LEEM and STM). The first part of the work concerns interaction of Cu(110) single crystal with oxygen. Condi- tions for formation of O(2x1) and Oc(6x2) oxygen reconstructions were found. Various methods of preparation of CeOx films were discussed. A novel method for continuous control of ceria stoichiometry from CeO2 to Ce2O3 through variation of oxygen vacancy concentration has been developed. Ceria facilitated oxygen spill-over was observed on copper substrate. It was found that a restructuring of copper substrate occurs at the copper-ceria interface with subsequent formation of Cu(13 13 1) facets, which support a Carpet-like ceria overlayer. Interaction of this system with platinum was studied. Finally, high temperature growth of CeOx films was studied and creation of ceria islands exposing the (110) plane was observed. 1

In this thesis point defects in semiconductors are studied by electronic structure calculations. Results are presented for the stability and equilibrium concentrations of native defects in GaP, InP, InAs, and InSb, for the entire range of doping conditions and stoichiometry. The native defects are also studied on the (110) surfaces of InP, InAs, and InSb. Comparing the relative stability at the surface and in the bulk, it is concluded that the defects have a tendency to migrate to the surface. It is found that the cation vacancy is not stable, but decomposes into an anion antisite-anion vacancy complex. The surface charge accumulation in InAs is explained by complementary intrinsic doping by native defects and extrinsic doping by residual hydrogen. A technical investigation of the supercell treatment of defects is performed, testing existing correction schemes and suggesting a more reliable alternative. It is shown that the defect level of [2VCu-IIICu] in the solarcell-material CuIn1-xGaxSe2 leads to a smaller band gap of the ordered defect γ-phase, which possibly explains why the maximal efficiency for CuIn1-xGaxSe2 has been found for x=0.3 and not for x=0.6, as expected from the band gap of the α-phase. It is found that Zn diffuses via the kick-out mechanism in InP and GaP with activation energies of 1.60 eV and 2.49 eV, respectively. Explanations are found for the tendency of Zn to accumulate at pn-junctions in InP and to why a relatively low fraction of Zn is found on substitutional sites in InP. Finally, it is shown that the equilibrium solubility of dopants in semiconductors can be increased significantly by strategic alloying. This is shown to be due to the local stress in the material, and the solubility in an alloy can in fact be much higher than in either of the constituting elements. The equilibrium solubility of Zn in Ga0.9In0.1P is for example five orders of magnitude larger than in GaP or InP.

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