Automated characterization of bending and expansion of a lattice of a Si substrate near a SiGe/Si interface by using split HOLZ line patterns.

A method to determine lattice parameters and parameters characterizing the bending strain of the lattice, the direction and magnitude of the displacement field of the bending strain, by using higher-order Laue zone (HOLZ) reflection lines observed in convergent-beam electron diffraction patterns is proposed. In this method, all of the parameters are simultaneously determined by a fit of two Hough transforms of experimental and kinematically simulated HOLZ line patterns. This method has been used to obtain two-dimensional maps of lattice parameter a, the direction and relative magnitude of the displacement field in a Si substrate near a SiGe/Si interface.