Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-gs9qr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-30T13:16:42.836Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Composition analysis of thin AlxGa1−xAs layers with TEM and SIMS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

A. F. de Jong  and
K. T. F. Janssen
A. F. de Jong
Affiliation:
Philips Research Laboratories WY2, P.O. Box 80000, 5600 JA Eindhoven, The Netherlands
K. T. F. Janssen
Affiliation:
Philips Research Laboratories WY2, P.O. Box 80000, 5600 JA Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Get access

Abstract

In this paper two methods for measuring aluminum compositions in very thin (1.5–15 nm), individual AlxGa1–xAs layers are investigated. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) thickness-fringe method uses the bright-field extinction fringes from a small, cleaved 90° wedge imaged in a [100] orientation. By comparing calculated and experimental extinction fringes, compositions are determined with a sensitivity in x of 0.03, in layers with a thickness of 3.5 nm. With secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), compositions in AlxGa1–xAs layers with a thickness of 15 nm are measured with an accuracy in x between 0.02 and 0.05. Thicker layers (1 μm) with a composition known from x-ray diffraction measurements are used as a reference for both methods. Subsequently, TEM results are compared with SIMS and the reference measurements. The overall agreement is good, but for 0.25 < x < 0.65, the values of x found by TEM are systematically 0.05 too low. Using the SIMS and reference measurements as a calibration, compositions can be determined by TEM with an accuracy between 0.03 (low x) and 0.05 (high x) in layers as thin as 1.5 nm.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , March 1990 , pp. 578 - 586
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

1Dingle, R., Festkörperprobleme 15, 21 1975).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2Duggan, G., Ralph, H.I., and Moore, K. J., Phys. Rev.B 32, 8395 (1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3Shealy, J. R., Schaus, C. F., and Wicks, G.W., Appl. Phys. Lett. 47, 125 (1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4Fewster, P. F., in Thin-film Growth Techniques for Low-Dimensional Structures, edited by Farrow, R. F. C. (Plenum Publ. Corp.), p. 417.Google Scholar
5Bartels, W. J. and Nijman, W., J. Cryst. Growth 44, 518 (1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6Loretto, M. H., in Microscopy of Semiconducting Materials 1987 (Inst. Phys. Conf. Ser. 87, London, 1987), p. 633.Google Scholar
7Kakibayashi, H. and Nagata, F., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 25,1644 (1986).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8Eaglesham, D. J., Hetherington, C. J. D., and Humphreys, C. J., in Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 77, 473 (1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9Ou, H.J., Tsen, S.C., Tsen, K.T., Cowley, J.M., Chyi, J.I., Salvador, A., and Morkoç, H., Appl. Phys. Lett. 54, 1454 (1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10Boudewijn, P.R., Leys, M. R., and Roozeboom, F., Surf. Interface Anal. 9, 303 (1986).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11McPhial, D.S., Dowsett, M. G., Fox, H., Houghton, R., Leong, W.Y., Paeker, E. H. C., and Patel, G. K., Surf. Interface Anal. 11, 80 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12Van Dyck, D., Adv. in Electr. and El. Phys. 65, 295 (1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13Coene, W. and Van Dyck, D., Ultramicroscopy 15, 41 (1984); ibid., p. 287.Google Scholar
14Doyle, P. A. and Turner, P. S., Acta Cryst. A24, 390 (1968).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15International Tables for X-ray Crystallography (Kynoch Press, Birmingham, 1962), Vol. Ill, p. 232.Google Scholar
16Humphreys, C. J.and Hirsch, P. B., Phil. Mag. 18, 115 (1968).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17Radi, G., Acta Cryst. A26, 41 (1970).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18Matsushita, T. and Hayashi, J., Phys. Stat. Sol. A41, 139 (1977).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19Adachi, S., J. Appl. Phys. 58, Rl (1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20Reid, J. S., Acta Cryst. A39, 1 (1983).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21Janssen, K. T. F. and de Jong, A. F. (to be published).Google Scholar
22Boothroyd, C. B. and Stobbs, W. M., Ultramicroscopy 26, 361 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23Zuo, J. M., Spence, J. C. H., and O'Keeffe, M., Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 353 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar