American Elements specializes in producing high purity uniform shaped Silicon Pellets with the highest possible density and smallest possible average grain sizes for use in semiconductor, Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) processes including Thermal and Electron Beam (E-Beam) Evaporation, Low Temperature Organic Evaporation, Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), Metallic-Organic and Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD). Our standard Pellet sizes range from 1/8" x 1/8" to 1/4" x 1/4" and 3 mm diameter. We can also provide Pellets outside this range for ultra high purity thin film applications, such as fuel cells and solar energy layers. Materials are produced using crystallization, solid state and other ultra high purification processes such as sublimation. American Elements specializes in producing custom compositions for commercial and research applications and for new proprietary technologies. American Elements also casts any of the rare earth metals and most other advanced materials into rod, bar or plate form, as well as other machined shapes and through other processes such as nanoparticles (See also application discussion at Nanotechnology Information and at Quantum Dots) and in the form of solutions and organometallics.. See research below. We also produce Silicon as rod, ingot, powder, pieces, disc, granules, wire, and in compound forms, such as oxide. Other shapes are available by request.

Silicon for solar energy applications includes p-type and n-type silicon thin film layers which can be fabricated by deposition utilizing AE Solar Energy silicon. Silicon-based photovoltaic cells (PV Cells) for solar energy are fabricated from a positively charged or p-type silicon layer underneath a negatively charged or n-type silicon layer. See Safety information.

Silicon is a Block P, Group 14, Period 3 element. The electronic configuration is [Ne] 3s² 3p². In its elemental form silicon's CAS number is 7440-21-3. The silicon atom has a radius of 117.6.pm and it's Van der Waals radius is 210.pm. Silicon is one of man's most useful elements. It makes up 25.7% of the earth's crust, by weight, and is the second most abundant element, being exceeded only by oxygen. The Czochralski process is commonly used to produce single crystals of silicon used for solid-state or semiconductor devices. Silica, as sand, is a principal ingredient of glass, one of the most inexpensive of materials with excellent mechanical, optical, thermal, and electrical properties.