2018 Volume 45 Issue 1 Article ID: 3-45-1-04
We report recent studies on the three-dimensional (3D) analysis of singularity structures in semiconductor materials, especially for nitride semiconductor epitaxial thick films and group IV semiconductor heteroepitaxial films. Nanobeam X-ray diffraction (nanoXRD) with a probe size of a few hundred nanometer performed at the beam line of SPring-8 enables us to reveal the lattice plane microstructures and their modulations caused by the singularity structures. 3D reciprocal space mapping (3D-RSM) analysis has recently been realized and, by using this, not only the lattice tilting and spacing but also the lattice rotation (or twisting) can simultaneously be characterized for exactly the same position in samples. Furthermore, we have newly developed the tomographic mapping method for analysing stacked epitaxial films. This technique allows us to observe not only in-plane but also in depth variations of microstructures, thereby to perform true 3D analysis. A methodology of the nanoXRD 3D-RSM and the tomographic mapping and experimental results revealing the correlation among the singularity structures, defect distribution, and 3D lattice morphology in the films are presented.
