A systematic distortion in high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscope (HAADF-STEM) images, which may be caused by residual electrical interference, has been evaluated. Strain mapping, using the geometric phase methodology, has been applied to images acquired in an aberration-corrected STEM. This allows this distortion to be removed and so quantitative analysis of HAADF-STEM images was enabled. The distortion is quantified by applying this technique to structurally perfect and strain-free material. As an example, the correction is used to analyse an InAs/GaAs dot-in-quantum well heterostructure grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The result is a quantitative measure of internal strain on an atomic scale. The measured internal strain field of the heterostructure can be interpreted as being due to variations of indium concentration in the quantum dot.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2004 in Savannah, Georgia, USA, August 1–5, 2004.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2004 in Savannah, Georgia, USA, August 1–5, 2004.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2004 in Savannah, Georgia, USA, August 1–5, 2004.

The formation of self-assembled quantum dots (QD) is of increasing interest for applications in optical, nanoelectronic, biological and quantum computing systems. From the perspective of fabrication technology, there are great advantages if the whole device can be made using a single Si substrate. Furthermore, GeSi is a model semiconductor system for fundamental studies of growth and material properties. In practice, as the MBE growth of heterostructures is inherently a non-equilibrium process, the formation of self-assembled nanostructures is both complex and sensitive to growth and overgrowth conditions. The morphology, structure and composition of QDs can all change during growth. It is therefore crucial to understand their structures at different stages of growth at the atomic scale. Here, the characterization of QD growth using high-resolution high angle annular dark field (HAADF) scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) imaging is presented. Both the formation of uncapped QDs and the effect of the encapsulation are investigated, and the morphological and compositional evolution of the QDs and wetting layers are observed directly at the atomic scale for the first time. During encapsulation, the Ge content in the centres of the QD remains unchanged, despite significant intermixing, lateral spreading and a laterally inhomogeneous Ge distribution inside the Ge QD. The initial non-uniform wetting layer for the uncapped Ge QD becomes uniform after encapsulation, and a 3-monolayer-thick core with ∼ 60% Ge content is formed in the 2 nm-thick wetting layer with an average Ge content of ∼ 30%. The results were obtained by direct analysis of the Z-contrast STEM imaging without involving complex image simulations.

The relaxation of strained layers frequently occurs by the glide of threading dislocations. From very early on in the relaxation process, gliding dislocations will be forced to intersect a number of prior dislocations with almost-perpendicular line directions and their progress may be blocked. This effect has been widely reported in semiconductor films, and there is some experimental evidence that it is reduced when layers are grown on vicinal substrates. This implies that the blocking is sensitively dependent on the dislocation configuration and in particular on the dislocation line directions.

In this paper the interactions between gliding threading dislocations and the perpendicular or nearly-perpendicular dislocation in their path are modelled quantitatively. The differences arising from different initial dislocation configurations and different predominant line directions are found to be small. Strain relaxation, at least in its early stages, should be virtually independent of the initial dislocation configuration.

Specimen support grids are now almost universally 3.05 mm in diameter, except for a few high resolution stages and some very old instruments. They are available in a vast range of materials and designs. One catalogue lists 86 types in a total of 10 materials. The reason for this proliferation is to enable one to control the following:

1. (a) the amount of support the specimen needs (unsupported areas range from 20 pm to 1 mm in extent);

2. (b) the material of the grid, so that it neither interferes with X-ray analysis nor reacts with the specimen;

3. (c) the labeling of specific regions of a specimen (many grids have identification marks for relocation of interesting fields).

The cheapest most widely used supports are copper grids at a spacing of 100 bars in"1. Most grids have a shiny side and a dull side. Opinions differ as to the best side on which to mount the specimen but if a consistent practice is adopted it is always known which way up in the microscope the specimen was mounted.

The microstructure of 95Pb-5Sn flip-chip solder bonds deposited on Cr/Cu/Au metallisation pads has been studied using both light and electron analysis techniques. The presence of Sn-Cu- Au ternary intermetallic phases was detected within the Pb-rich matrix at significant distances from the originally deposited interface. The distribution of the phases present after the solder has undergone a reflow heat treatment can be interpreted using recent equilibrium ternary diagram data. An investigation was also made into the effects of various non-reflow heat treatments at carefully chosen temperatures, to qualitatively evaluate the extent of solid state diffusion and the resultant phase distribution.

Excimer laser light has been used to achieve the maximum growth rate of GaAs in a chemical beam epitaxy system when temperatures were more than a hundred degrees below the normalgrowth temperature. Secondary electron and transmitted electron microscopy of material grown using laser assistance shows the presence of surface ripples aligned with crystallographic directions. Layers grown at the lowest temperatures using a high fluence of excimer laser light contain a high density of small dislocation tangles (>1011 cm-−2 ). Lower fluences have no effect on the microstructure of the material.

An initially pseudomorphic Sio.93Geo.07 layer is forced to relax after the deposition of 0.003 monolayers of Cu contamination and a 600°C anneal. Photoluminescence shows the dislocations have similar luminescence features (D1 to D4) to dislocations generated in bulk silicon. TEM is used to study the generation of the misfit dislocations. It is shown that the half loops form at the sample surface and a mechanism that involves the action of both the metal contaminant and the surface steps is suggested to explain the geometric arrangement of the dislocation loops that are present. The sample was found to be only 22% relaxed whereas equilibrium theory predicts 92% relaxation.

The changes in defect structure caused by an anneal are studied by TEM for thin GaAs layers on Si. A low growth temperature of 450°C is always used for the first 300Å. When it is first deposited this layer contains considerable disorder which consists of planar defects, {112} epitaxy and an irregular distribution of dislocations. Annealing of the layer gives rise to a solid phase regrowth that consumes the misoriented and much of the twinned crystal and produces regular misfit dislocation arrays. Continued growth at high temperature can reduce the twin densities to below the detection limit of TEM. It is this solid phase transformation of this layer that allows good epitaxy to continue.

The reactions between misfit dislocations arriving by glide at the interface between an In0.12Ga0.88As/GaAs multilayer and a GaAs substrate are analysed and reported. The glide forces for the (a/2)<110> dislocations are calculated as a function of vicinal tilt from (001) to (100). It is observed that the 4% changes in the magnitude of the force for a 2° vicinal angle are not sufficient to significantly alter the relative linear densities of the different types of dislocation.

Growth onto vicinal substrates causes 60° misfit dislocations to adopt line directions away from <110> in order for them to maintain their presence within the substrate to strained layer interface. Observations show that for the growth of an on-axis [001]wafer the dislocations have a line direction, within measurement error, exactly [110] or [-110] and two sets of orthogonal dislocations are generated. When grown onto a wafer that is cut off-axis toward [010] four sets of dislocations are generated. The two sets of dislocations in each direction converge to form low angle intersections from which edge dislocations are formed. These edge dislocations can become very long by the glide out of the interface plane of the component 60° dislocations. This ‘zipping-up’ to form the edge components only occurs in one direction from the low angle point of intersection and the edge segments are exclusively generated in the buffer layer. Their density and penetration are a function of thickness and composition of the mismatched epilayer. The mechanisms by which the dislocations adopt line directions away from <110> and why they zip-up from the intersection in only one direction are discussed.

The aim of thin foil preparation is to produce a specimen for microscopy which is representative of a larger volume of material, and in which the detail can be seen and interpreted. It is in general necessary to undertake some initial preparation before the final thinning process. Both stages are described. The final preparation methods described in this paper include electropolishing, ion beam thinning, ultramicrotomy and replication. A guide to the choice of technique is presented.