Measurement of incomplete strain relaxation in a silicon heteroepitaxial film by geometrical phase analysis in the transmission electron microscope

Relaxation of strain by a partial dislocation and stacking fault in a strained Si film was characterized using geometric phase analysis of high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) images. Movement of a 60° glide dislocation from the free surface to the film-substrate interface created a complex state of strain in the film. HRTEM image analysis was used to produce a quantitative measure of the atomic displacement fields that could be used as input to finite-element simulations of stress distributions and resulting affects on band structures.