Investigation of minute strain in silicon on insulator and strained-silicon/silicon–germanium/silicon-substrate semiconductor materials using a synchrotron radiation X-ray microbeam

Strain in silicon on insulator (SOI) and strained-silicon(s-Si)/silicon–germanium (SiGe)/Si-substrate crystals is analysed by means of synchrotron X-ray microbeam diffraction. It is found that strain features of the s-Si/SiGe/Si crystals are much different from those of SOI crystals from the lattice tilt and lattice parameter distribution points of view. The two-dimensional lattice tilt maps obtained by scanning the synchrotron X-ray microbeam of about 1 μm in size on the sample surface are useful to study local strain distribution in those materials.