Advances in SEM-based diffraction studies of defects and strains in semiconductors

Two scanning electron microscope (SEM)-based diffraction techniques, i.e. electron channelling contrast imaging (ECCI) and electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD) are used to study lattice defect and local elastic strain distributions in Si1-xGe(x) epilayers grown on Si substrates patterned with mesas. The ECCI technique allows the misfit dislocations to be imaged in bulk samples. The misfit dislocations caused plastic relaxation of the strain in planar regions between mesas and in the wider mesas. In the narrower mesas the removal of lateral constraint at the mesa side faces had reduced the stress sufficiently to suppress the propagation of dislocations parallel to the closely spaced side faces. The measurements of small changes in the positions of two zone axes in EBSD patterns caused by variations in the local strain field were used to determine the strains and rotations making up the generalized plane strain tensor describing the deformation in the long mesa structures. The strain sensitivity of the method was determined to be approximately +/- 2 x 10(-4). Distributions of strains and rotations across mesas of several dimensions are reported and differ significantly between mesa for which the mesas width to epilayer thickness is high and low.