Quantitative strain characterization of SiGe heterostructures by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy

Experimental examination of strain field within GP zone in an Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy

“…Recently, highresolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) has become a powerful tool for mapping the displacements and the strain fields at the nano-scale level because of the development of quantitative image analysis methods [1,2], and especially, the geometric phase analysis (GPA) technique, whose accuracy has demonstrated that it could be measured to 0.003 nm, is one of such techniques [3,4]. So far, the GPA has successfully been applied to a wide variety of systems, such as quantum dots [5], nanowires [6], Si/Ge heterostructures [7] and low-angle grain boundaries [8]. Furthermore, the GPA technology has also been applied to quantitative measurements of the displacement field of the edge dislocation in metal aluminum and gold [1,9].…”

Quantitative measurement of strain field in strained-channel-transistor arrays by scanning moiré fringe imaging

“…The nano-scale measurement of the strain field of the channel in a transistor has been performed by applying geometrical phase analysis to the TEM image (GPA-TEM). [4][5][6][7][8][9] However, the drawback of TEM images is that the phase contrast is greatly affected by a sample condition such as the local variation in thickness, which leads to a phase shift or contrast reversal in the TEM image. These effects can give rise to a fluctuation in the strain value when the TEM image is converted into the strain map, which results in a degradation of the measurement precision.…”

Heterostructures design for Hf-Nitride/V-Nitride system

“…However, the mechanical requirements in many applications are so high that classical single-layered hard coatings cannot satisfy them anymore [1]. Several films such multilayer materials have attracted much research interest because the nanometer scale may drastically change the density of electronic states and the transport properties of the conductor or semiconductors systems [2]. In the literature is presented that strain-driven self-assembly of nanostructures provides an inexpensive and effective manufacturing process and has been extensively studied over the past decade.…”