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Large-area back-reflection and transmission X-ray diffraction topographs of bonded silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers made with synchrotron radiation allowed direct and simultaneous imaging of bonding-induced strain patterns of both the 7 μm thick (011) top layers and the (001) Si substrates of the SOI structures. The bonding-induced strain pattern consists of cells having a diameter of about 40 μm. Section topographs show a lattice misorientation of the adjacent cells of about 0.001° and the maximum observed strain-induced lattice plane rotation ten times larger, i.e. about 0.01°. Topographs made after etching away the insulator layer show no indication of residual strain or defects either in the silicon-on-insulator layer or in the substrate. This is in agreement with the experimentally determined maximum bonding stress of 30 MPa, which is much smaller than the estimated stress needed to nucleate dislocations.

White beam synchrotron radiation X-ray topography (SR-XRT) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements were used to non-destructively study the defect structure of a bulk GaN wafer, grown by the ammonothermal method. SR-XRT topographs revealed high crystal quality with threading dislocation density 8.8×10 4 cm −2 and granular structure consisting of large, slightly misaligned grains. The threading dislocations within grains were identified as mixed and screw type, while no pure threading edge dislocations were observed.

GaP0.98N0.02 layers having a thickness from 75 nm to 600 nm are grown on GaP substrates by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. Back-reflection X-ray topographs made with a synchrotron radiation of the thick GaP0.98N0.02 layers reveal images of misfit dislocations. The critical thickness of the grown GaP0.98N0.02 layer on GaP substrate is evaluated from the topographs to be about 200 nm. The strain relaxation is also observed from high resolution X-ray diffraction curves. X-ray diffraction curves and atomic force microscopy studies indicate that the GaP0.98N0.02 layers with thickness smaller than 200 nm possess a very good crystal quality, an atomically smooth surface with a roughness less than 0.3 nm and a well-defined interface without misfit dislocations between the layer and the substrate.