X-ray interference in quantum-well laser structures

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Abstract
X-ray interference effects are observed in the simulated rocking curves of quantum-well laser structures. It is shown that the interference effects appear in the cladding layer peak of rocking curves for a generic sample structure of a thin heterojunction layer of composition A cladded with two thicker layers of composition B. Depending on the detailed layer structure and the lattice mismatch, the sandwiched quantum-well layer can be as thin as 2–3 Å in order to affect the interference structure of the cladding layer peak. For a given mismatch, the interference effect occurs around a certain minimum thickness and similar interference structures appear periodically with increasing quantum-well layer thickness. This effect can be used to estimate the quantum-well layer thickness with a high accuracy. A simple model is used to calculate the thickness period as a function of lattice misfit and diffraction geometry. The calculation results explain the simulation results.