Application of imaging-grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction and specular reflectivity to the structural investigation of quantum-confinement semiconductor devices.

X-ray reflectivity and grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction techniques have been employed to investigate the structure of quantum-well and quantum-dot semiconductor devices. This work has been performed using both laboratory and synchrotron radiation sources. The use of synchrotron radiation enabled reflectivity studies to be performed on small samples, and established the feasibility of imaging-grazing-incidence diffraction studies on quantum-confinement structures. Interdiffusion effects in quantum-well and quantum-dot structures, the disordering of overlayers grown on quantum dots, and the variation in diffraction pattern with incident angle have been observed. It is evident that X-ray reflectivity and imaging-grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction yield quite different but complementary information.