Strain measurement in In0.2Ga0.8As/GaAs quantum wires by convergent beam electron diffraction

The positions of high-order Laue zone (HOLZ) lines in the zero order disc of convergent beam electron diffraction (CBED) patterns are extremely sensitive to local lattice parameters. With proper care, these can be measured to a level of one part in 104 in nanometer sized areas. Recent upgrades to the Cornell UHV STEM have made energy filtered CBED possible with a slow scan CCD, and this technique has been applied to the measurement of strain in In0.2Ga0.8 As wires.Semiconductor quantum wire structures have attracted much interest for potential device applications. For example, semiconductor lasers with quantum wires should exhibit an improvement in performance over quantum well counterparts. Strained quantum wires are expected to have even better performance. However, not much is known about the true behavior of strain in actual structures, a parameter critical to their performance.