TY - JOUR
T1 - Composition Analysis of III-Nitrides at the Nanometer Scale
T2 - Comparison of Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy and Atom Probe Tomography
AU - Bonef, Bastien
AU - Lopez-Haro, Miguel
AU - Amichi, Lynda
AU - Beeler, Mark
AU - Grenier, Adeline
AU - Robin, Eric
AU - Jouneau, Pierre Henri
AU - Mollard, Nicolas
AU - Mouton, Isabelle
AU - Monroy, Eva
AU - Bougerol, Catherine
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, The Author(s).
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - The enhancement of the performance of advanced nitride-based optoelectronic devices requires the fine tuning of their composition, which has to be determined with a high accuracy and at the nanometer scale. For that purpose, we have evaluated and compared energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) and atom probe tomography (APT) in terms of composition analysis of AlGaN/GaN multilayers. Both techniques give comparable results with a composition accuracy better than 0.6 % even for layers as thin as 3 nm. In case of EDX, we show the relevance of correcting the X-ray absorption by simultaneous determination of the mass thickness and chemical composition at each point of the analysis. Limitations of both techniques are discussed when applied to specimens with different geometries or compositions.
AB - The enhancement of the performance of advanced nitride-based optoelectronic devices requires the fine tuning of their composition, which has to be determined with a high accuracy and at the nanometer scale. For that purpose, we have evaluated and compared energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) and atom probe tomography (APT) in terms of composition analysis of AlGaN/GaN multilayers. Both techniques give comparable results with a composition accuracy better than 0.6 % even for layers as thin as 3 nm. In case of EDX, we show the relevance of correcting the X-ray absorption by simultaneous determination of the mass thickness and chemical composition at each point of the analysis. Limitations of both techniques are discussed when applied to specimens with different geometries or compositions.
KW - Atom probe tomography
KW - Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
KW - III-Nitride nanostructures
KW - Nanoscale composition analysis
KW - Quantitative composition analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84991619020&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s11671-016-1668-2
DO - 10.1186/s11671-016-1668-2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84991619020
SN - 1931-7573
VL - 11
JO - Nanoscale Research Letters
JF - Nanoscale Research Letters
IS - 1
M1 - 461
ER -