Combining experiment and optical simulation in coherent X-ray nanobeam characterization of Si/SiGe semiconductor heterostructures

Journal Article · Thu Jul 07 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4955043· OSTI ID:22597892

Tilka, J. A.; Park, J.; Ahn, Y.; Pateras, A.; Sampson, K. C.; Savage, D. E.; Lagally, M. G.; Prance, J. R.; Simmons, C. B.; Coppersmith, S. N.; Eriksson, M. A. ^[1]; Holt, M. V. ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)
2. Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)

The highly coherent and tightly focused x-ray beams produced by hard x-ray light sources enable the nanoscale characterization of the structure of electronic materials but are accompanied by significant challenges in the interpretation of diffraction and scattering patterns. X-ray nanobeams exhibit optical coherence combined with a large angular divergence introduced by the x-ray focusing optics. The scattering of nanofocused x-ray beams from intricate semiconductor heterostructures produces a complex distribution of scattered intensity. We report here an extension of coherent x-ray optical simulations of convergent x-ray beam diffraction patterns to arbitrary x-ray incident angles to allow the nanobeam diffraction patterns of complex heterostructures to be simulated faithfully. These methods are used to extract the misorientation of lattice planes and the strain of individual layers from synchrotron x-ray nanobeam diffraction patterns of Si/SiGe heterostructures relevant to applications in quantum electronic devices. The systematic interpretation of nanobeam diffraction patterns from semiconductor heterostructures presents a new opportunity in characterizing and ultimately designing electronic materials.

• OSTI ID: 22597892
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 120, Issue 1; Other Information: (c) 2016 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
BEAMS
DIFFRACTION
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
GERMANIUM SILICIDES
HARD X RADIATION
LIGHT SOURCES
NANOSTRUCTURES
OPTICS
QUANTUM ELECTRONICS
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SILICON
SIMULATION
SYNCHROTRONS