homogeneous amorphous material or the coupling and modification of properties by force of the periodic potentials inherent in the superlattice structures of the prior art for example doping on a more substitutional level can be achieved the materials do involve the design of coupling or decoupling of properties where desired such as the electron magnetic and phonon interactions this allows separate and different relationships to be designed into the material without the disadvantages and restrictions of the prior art the structures of the materials of the invention utilize layers and individual atoms or groups of atoms which need not follow a sequential pattern from layer to layer these layers can be deliberately designed so that they are not geometrically regular in spatial separation and subsequent layers can be entirely different from the preceeding layers for example an elemental layer or an alloy layer which can be amorphous or crystalline mbe is one specialized technique of the prior art which provides a method for producing precisely layered crystalline materials for some optical and electronic applications the present invention which includes plasma techniques removes the crystalline lattice symmetry constraints as well as problems which can be caused by mismatches in amorphous materials even in amorphous materials layering can produce a heterojunction effect if they are of thicknesses thicker than or comparable to the depletion or screening width one of the basic problems in any kind of solid state device is to avoid not only interfacial effects but heterojunction effects as one changes materials adds materials or layers materials the invention provides a technique for the first time of controlling the interfacial strain and stress.