Mapping of strain fields about thin film structures using x-ray microdiffraction

The strain fields produced in Si substrates due to pseudomorphically strained SiGe on Si(001) and evaporated Ni dots on Si(111) were mapped using x-ray microdiffraction. The extent of the strain fields were detected up to 120 times the film thickness away from the feature edge but varied as a function of the feature width, w. By normalizing the distances of the enhanced diffracted Si(004) intensity profiles by the observed MID values, a characteristic curve was obtained indicating that the enhanced intensity follows a w1/2 dependence for feature widths ranging from 1.5 to 20 μm.