Microscale elastic-strain determination by backscatter Kikuchi diffraction in the scanning electron microscope

Abstract

It is shown that backscatter Kikuchi diffraction in the scanning electron microscope can be used for the determination of elastic strain with μm resolution. From the shift of Kikuchi bands in backscatter Kikuchi diffraction patterns of epitaxial Si1−xGex layers on Si(100) the perpendicular elastic strain was determined to be 2.5% for x=0.34 and at 1.0% for x=0.16 with an accuracy of about 0.1%. The values found on a μm scale were in good agreement with high-resolution x-ray diffraction measurements averaging over mm distances.

Determination of the Structural and Luminescence Properties of Nitrides Using Electron Backscattered Diffraction and Photo‐ and Cathodoluminescence

“…Each Kikuchi band is effectively the trace of the plane from which it is formed, the EBSD pattern is therefore a 2-D projection (the gnomic projection) of the crystal structure [4].…”

“…EBSD is presently used predominantly in metallurgy [1], being applied to the measurement of texture [1-2], and for the identification of different crystalline phases. Wilkinson [3] and Troost et al [4] have applied EBSD to the measurement of strain in SiGe epilayers, while Baba-Kishi [5] has used EBSD to investigate crystallographic polarity in non-centrosymmetric materials. Their results make EBSD an attractive technique to adapt for the characterisation of nitride thin films.…”

Electron Backscattered Diffraction Patterns from Cooled Gallium Nitride Thin Films

“…EBSD is at present predominantly used in metallurgy for the measurement of texture, i.e., the mapping of the orientation of individual grains in polycrystalline samples [1], and to identify different crystalline phases. However, Wilkinson [2] and Troost et al [3] applied EBSD to the measurement of strain in SiGe epilayers while Baba-Kishi [4] has used EBSD to investigate crystallographic polarity of non-centrosymmetric structures. These results strongly suggest that EBSD may be a useful technique to apply to the characterisation of nitride thin films.…”

Measurement of crystal parameters on backscatter kikuchi diffraction patterns

“…These combined with the wide angular range of over 120°across the diagonal and high intrinsic spatial resolution make BKDPs suitable for crystallographic analysis (Baba-Kishi 1991a). The primary applications of BKDPs are: phase identification by crystallographic point group or space group classification (Baba-Kishi 1991b;Baba-Kishi and Dingley 1989 a, b;Dingley et al 1994); orientation microscopy (Dingley et al 1989, Randle 1992, and evaluation of plastic and elastic strains (Troost et al 1993, Wilkinson 1996.…”