Epitaxial layer thickness measurement by cross-sectional atomic force microscopy

3 June 1996

journal article
research article
Published by AIP Publishing in Applied Physics Letters

Vol. 68 (23) , 3353-3355
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.116055

Abstract

An epitaxial layer thickness measurement technique has been developed using cross‐sectional atomic force microscopy (XSAFM). Cleaved and etchedepitaxialheterostructures of Al0.5Ga0.5As/GaAs have been analyzed using this technique. XSAFM analysis of a 20.5 period structure of 300‐Å‐thick Al0.5Ga0.5As/GaAs layers agreed to within 2% of x‐ray diffraction data. XSAFM analysis of a structure consisting of GaAs wells ranging from ∼15 to 600 Å with 300 Å Al0.5Ga0.5As barriers was also performed. The XSAFM measured well thicknesses agreed quite well with photoluminescence (PL) measurements taken at 4 K. XSAFM can thus serve as a rapid alternative to conventional thickness measurement techniques such as SEM and TEM.

Keywords

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