Stacking fault generation within silicon germanium on insulator substrates fabricated by the Ge condensation technique has been evidenced by transmission electronic microscopy analyses for high Ge content enrichments (80%). This phenomenon is explained as a typical strain relaxation mechanism... (Read more)

The interactions between edge dislocations and grain boundaries—dislocation pileup, dislocation absorption, and dislocation transmission—are studied by performing quasicontinuum simulations. The 112 asymmetrical tilt grain boundaries with different misorientation angles are used. The... (Read more)

The exact, linear response at steady state is calculated for reacting, but otherwise noninteracting, thermal defects driven by defect creation processes. The theory applies to vacancies and interstitials in the bulk, or to adatoms and advacancies on surface terraces. A wide variety of possible... (Read more)

Grain boundaries are the most inevitable and pronounced structural defects in pentacene films. To study the effect of those structural defects on the electronic state distribution, the energy levels of a hole on molecules at and near the defect have been calculated using a submolecular... (Read more)

In this paper we describe the use of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) mapping and electron channeling contrast imaging—in the scanning electron microscope—to study tilt, atomic steps and dislocations in epitaxial GaN thin films. We show results from a series of GaN thin films of... (Read more)

The optical properties of vertically stacked self-assembled GaN/AlN quantum dots (QD's) grown on Si substrates were studied by means of temporally and spatially resolved cathodoluminescence (CL). An analysis of the CL spectra, thermal activation energies, and measured decay times of the QD... (Read more)

The role of hydrogen in the exfoliation of Ge is studied using cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and multiple-internal transmission mode Fourier-transform infrared absorption spectroscopy and compared with the mechanism in silicon. A qualitative model for the... (Read more)

Plastic relaxation of carbon nanotubes under tension and at high temperature is described in terms of dislocation theory and with atomistic computer simulations. It is shown how the glide of pentagon-heptagon defects and a particular type of their pseudoclimb, with the atoms directly breaking out of... (Read more)

A detailed study of the transformation of the {113} defects into dislocation loops has been carried out in Ge preamorphized silicon (30 keV, 1×10¹⁵ Ge⁺/cm²) and annealed at 800 °C for time ranging from 15 to 2700 s. The presence of a stable defect,... (Read more)

Channeling implantation of Ga into Ge is performed at two very different ion fluxes (10¹² and 10¹⁹ cm^–2 s^–1), at two temperatures (room temperature and 250 °C), and at five different fluences. The fluence dependence of the range profiles... (Read more)

The authors present a detailed investigation of defects generated during catastrophic optical damage (COD) in high-power 650 nm AlGaInP lasers using microphotoluminescence (µ-PL) mapping, focused ion beam (FIB) microscopy, and deep-etching techniques. High-resolution µ-PL... (Read more)

X-ray topographical images from thin (50 nm) strained-Si films grown on relaxed, planarized crystalline SiGe-on-Si (001) virtual substrates have been imaged by glancing-incidence monochromatic x-ray topography. This extremely asymmetric diffraction geometry, utilizing (311) diffraction planes, can... (Read more)

Synchrotron phase sensitive radiography, optical and scanning electron microscopies, and color photoluminescence have been used to study the interaction of micropipes with foreign polytype inclusions in 4H-SiC bulk crystals grown on 6H-SiC substrates. This combination of techniques... (Read more)

The multiferroic material BiMnO₃ synthesized under high pressure has been systematically studied by transmission electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy, and some important structural defects are revealed in this multiferroic material. The frequently observed defects are... (Read more)

This paper addresses some of the fundamental issues and critical advantages in reducing the grain size/feature size to the nanoscale regime. We find that as the grain size or feature size is reduced, there is a critical size below which the defect content can be reduced virtually to zero. This... (Read more)

A systematic procedure is developed to evaluate the density of planar defects together with dislocations and crystallite or subgrain size by x-ray line profile analysis in fcc crystals. Powder diffraction patterns are numerically calculated by using the DIFFAX software for intrinsic and extrinsic... (Read more)

The pinholelike defects often observed in multistack InAs quantum dot structures on GaAs have been investigated comprehensively. Due to the high surface stress of InAs quantum dots, the overgrowth of GaAs and InGaAs capping layers on InAs quantum dots is far from conformal and leads to the formation... (Read more)

Only a few years ago, an account of degradation of silicon carbide high-voltage p-i-n diodes was presented at the European Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Compounds (Kloster Banz, Germany, 2000). This report was followed by the intense effort of multiple groups... (Read more)

We report on electronic properties of single- and double-layer stacking faults in 4H-SiC and provide an insight into apparent distinctions of recombination-enhanced defect reactions at these faults. Photoluminescence imaging spectroscopy and deep-level transient spectroscopy experiments... (Read more)

X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and optical spectroscopy were used to investigate the microstructure of polycrystalline samples of pure monoclinic zirconia irradiated by high energy ions. These techniques point out the existence of extended defects and they allow to monitor the... (Read more)

An entire family of nano-scale trenches, ridges, and steps has been observed experimentally on AsH₃-exposed Si(100). Some of these line structures have been observed previously, but their structures have remained a mystery. Theoretical modeling shows that they are all based upon the same... (Read more)

Silicon carbide (SiC) has a range of useful physical, mechanical and electronic properties that make it a promising material for next-generation electronic devices^1,2. Careful consideration of the thermal conditions^3-6 in which SiC {0001} is grown has resulted in improvements in crystal diameter and quality: the quantity of macroscopic defects such as hollow core dislocations (micropipes)^7-9, inclusions, small-angle boundaries and longrange lattice warp has been reduced^10,11. But some macroscopic defects (about 1–10 cm^-2) and a large density of elementary dislocations (,10⁴ cm^-2), such as edge, basal plane and screw dislocations, remain within the crystal, and have so far prevented the realization of high-efficiency, reliable electronic devices in SiC (refs 12–16). Here we report a method, inspired by the dislocation structure of SiC grown perpendicular to the c-axis (a-face growth)¹⁷, to reduce the number of dislocations in SiC single crystals by two to three orders of magnitude, rendering them virtually dislocation-free. These substrates will promote the development of high-power SiC devices and reduce energy losses of the resulting electrical systems. (Read more)

The driving force of stacking-fault expansion in SiC p–i–n diodes was investigated using optical emission microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The stacking-fault expansion and properties of the partial dislocations were inconsistent with any stress as the... (Read more)

The ramification of micropipes is observed using scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy, and synchrotron x-ray radiography. The conditions for the ramification of dislocated micropipes are determined theoretically within a model when the angles between dislocation lines are small. It is... (Read more)

On annealing a boron implanted Si sample at ~800 °C, boron in the tail of the implanted profile diffuses very fast, faster than the normal thermal diffusion by a factor 100 or more. After annealing for a sufficiently long time, the enhanced diffusion saturates. The enhanced diffusion is... (Read more)

Hexagonal voids observed in sublimation grown SiC boules were examined using optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy, KOH etching, and synchrotron white-beam x-ray topography. Voids formed at imperfections in the attachment layer between the seed and crucible... (Read more)

Process-induced defects are still a key issue in semiconductor device production. The increasing miniaturization and number of process steps as well as the introduction of new materials and processes make the understanding of defect generation more complex. In this paper, we describe small defects... (Read more)

The sublimation epitaxy growth process has been studied. The structural quality of the grown layers improves compared with the substrate mainly due to a diminished domain structure misorientation. Optical microscopy shows that the as-grown surfaces are free of typical defects appearing in silicon... (Read more)

Using thermodynamic and kinetic considerations, we explain the quasiequilibrium, morphological, and structural characteristics of thermally induced oxide precipitates in Czochralski silicon. A model based upon the formation of Frenkel defects at the silicon/silica interface is used to explain the... (Read more)