Characterization of Defects and Interfaces by the Ion Channeling Technique

Abstract

AbstractChanneling of fast, light ions in crystals has been widely used as a tool for studying crystal defects. This subject has been reviewed earlier at MRS-1980. During MRS-1980, principles of ion channeling, and examples of channeling analysis on bulk defects and surface structures, lattice location of impurities, and clustering phenomena were given. In this review, we give a brief overview of defect studies by the channeling technique and then elaborate on recent developments in channeling analysis of interfacial structure. The ion beam channeling technique permits characterization of heteroepitaxial growth starting at monolayer coverages and allows quantitative measurement of the lattice strain in heteroepitaxial layers. The strain analysis has been developed for multilayer structures and, for example, the tetragonal distortions of strained-layer superlattices can be determined for lattice mismatches as low as 0.2% corresponding to lattice distortions of 0.01Å.