Evaluation of Crystal Lattice Rotation around a Stress-Induced Twin in a Step-Graded SiGe / Si (110) Using STEM Moiré Observation and its Image Analysis

Elastic lattice strain strongly affects electric properties of semiconductor materials. For example, a strained Si exhibits higher carrier-mobility than an ordinary Si. SiGe virtual substrates are commonly used to produce the strained Si [1, 2]. The key point is that the SiGe lattice must be relaxed, otherwise it is impossible to produce the strained Si on the SiGe. Therefore, it is important to analyze lattice strain of both the strained Si and the SiGe virtual substrate. Raman spectroscopy and X-ray reciprocal mapping (XRM) are useful to analyze lattice strain when we don’t need nm-order spatial resolution. On the other hand, TEM related methods such as high resolution TEM/STEM images and nano-beam electron diffraction are useful in the case that the spatial resolution is important, although these TEM related methods are not suitable to acquire the data from micrometer order area. Recently a new method to analyze lattice strain was reported by some researchers [3, 4]. The new method uses a STEM moiré, a moiré between scanning lines of STEM and crystal lattice. This method can acquire data from a wide area with good spatial resolution. We also reported the usage of this technique, especially from the viewpoint of without using Cs-corrected machines [5, 6]. We reported our feasibility study about a slight change of lattice spacing of the SiGe due to Ge composition change [6]. In this study we focused on the local lattice rotation around a stress-induced twin in the SiGe.