Abstract: We demonstrate that electron irradiation of colloidal CdS nanorods carrying Au domains causes their evolution into AuS/Cd core/shell nanoparticles as a result of a concurrent chemical and morphological transformation. The shrinkage of the CdS nanorods and the growth of the Cd shell around the Au tips are imaged in real time, while the displacement of S atoms from the CdS nanorod to the Au domains is evidenced by high-sensitivity energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. The various nanodomains display different susceptibility to the irradiation, which results in nanoconfigurations that are very different from those obtained after thermal annealing. Such physical manipulations of colloidal nanocrystals can be exploited as a tool to access novel nanocrystal heterostructures.

Abstract: The last few years have seen a great deal of progress in the development of transmission electron microscopy based techniques for strain mapping. New techniques have appeared such as dark field electron holography and nanobeam diffraction and better known ones such as geometrical phase analysis have been improved by using aberration corrected ultra-stable modern electron microscopes. In this paper we apply dark field electron holography, the geometrical phase analysis of high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy images, nanobeam diffraction and precession diffraction, all performed at the state-of-the-art to five different types of semiconductor samples. These include a simple calibration structure comprising 10-nm-thick SiGe layers to benchmark the techniques. A SiGe recessed source and drain device has been examined in order to test their capabilities on 2D structures. Devices that have been strained using a nitride stressor have been examined to test the sensitivity of the different techniques when applied to systems containing low values of deformation. To test the techniques on modern semiconductors, an electrically tested device grown on a SOI wafer has been examined. Finally a GaN/AlN superlattice was tested in order to assess the different methods of measuring deformation on specimens that do not have a perfect crystalline structure. The different deformation mapping techniques have been compared to one another and the strengths and weaknesses of each are discussed.

Abstract: The depth strain profile in silicon from the Si (001) substrate to the surface of a 2 nm thick Si/12 nm thick SiGe/bulk Si heterostructure has been determined by medium energy ion scattering (MEIS). It shows with sub-nanometer resolution and high strain sensitivity that the thin Si cap presents residual compressive strain caused by Ge diffusion coming from the fully strained SiGe layer underneath. The strain state of the SiGe buffer have been checked by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and nano-beam electron diffraction (NBED) measurements.

Abstract: Quantitative atomic resolution annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (ADF STEM) has become a powerful technique for nanoparticle atom-counting. However, a lot of nanoparticles provide a severe characterisation challenge because of their limited size and beam sensitivity. Therefore, quantitative ADF STEM may greatly benefit from statistical detection theory in order to optimise the instrumental microscope settings such that the incoming electron dose can be kept as low as possible whilst still retaining single-atom precision. The principles of detection theory are used to quantify the probability of error for atom-counting. This enables us to decide between different image performance measures and to optimise the experimental detector settings for atom-counting in ADF STEM in an objective manner. To demonstrate this, ADF STEM imaging of an industrial catalyst has been conducted using the near-optimal detector settings. For this experiment, we discussed the limits for atomcounting diagnosed by combining a thorough statistical method and detailed image simulations.

Abstract: Si/Si(1 − x − y)GexCy superlattices are used in the construction of new microelectronic architectures such as multichannel transistors. The introduction of carbon in SiGe allows for compensation of the strain and to avoid plastic relaxation. However, the formation of incoherent β-SiC clusters during annealing limits the processability of SiGeC. This precipitation leads to a modification of the strain in the alloy due to the reduction of the substitutional carbon content. Here, we investigated the strain in annealed Si/Si0.744Ge0.244C0.012 superlattices grown by reduced pressure chemical vapour deposition using dark-field electron holography. The variation of the substitutional C content was calculated by correlating the results with finite-element simulations. The obtained values were then compared with Fourier-transformed infrared spectrometry measurements. It was shown that after annealing for 2 min at 1050 °C carbon no longer has any influence on strain in the superlattice, which behaves like pure SiGe. However, a significant proportion of substitutional C atoms remain in a third-nearest neighbour (3nn) configuration. It was deduced that the influence of 3nn C on strain is negligible and that only isolated atoms have a significant contribution. It was also proposed that the 3nn configuration is an intermediary step during the formation of SiC clusters.

Abstract: Strain engineering in the conduction channel is a cost effective method of boosting the performance in state-of-the-art semiconductor devices. However, given the small dimensions of these devices, it is difficult to quantitatively measure the strain with the required spatial resolution. Three different transmission electron microscopy techniques, high-angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy, dark field electron holography, and nanobeam electron diffraction have been applied to measure the strain in simple bulk and SOI calibration specimens. These techniques are then applied to different gate length SiGe SOI pFET devices in order to measure the strain in the conduction channel. For these devices, improved spatial resolution is required, and strain maps with spatial resolutions as good as 1 nm have been achieved. Finally, we discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of using these three different techniques when used for strain measurement.

Abstract: This dataset contains individual EEL and EDX events where for every event (electron or X-ray), their energy and time of arrival is stored. The experiment was performed in a transmission electron microscope (Tecnai Osiris) at 200 keV. The material investigated is an Al-Mg-Si-Cu alloy. The 'full_dataset.mat' contains the full dataset and the 'subset.mat' has the first five frames of the full dataset. The attached 'EELS-EDX.ipynb' is a jupyter notebook file. This file describes the data processing in order to observe the temporal correlation between the electrons and X-rays.