The mechanism of {113} defect formation in silicon: clustering of interstitial-vacancy pairs studied by in situ high-resolution electron microscope irradiation.

We report the direct visualization of point defect clustering in {113} planes of silicon crystal using a transmission electron microscope, which was supported by structural modeling and high-resolution electron microscope image simulations. In the initial stage an accumulation of nonbonded interstitial-vacancy (I-V) pairs stacked at a distance of 7.68 Å along neighboring atomic chains located on the {113} plane takes place.

In situ dynamic HR-TEM and EELS study on phase transitions of Ge2Sb2Te5 chalcogenides.

The phase transition phenomena of Ge2Sb2Te5 chalcogenides were investigated by in situ dynamic high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). A 300kV field emission TEM and a 1250kV high voltage TEM were employed for the in situ heating experiments from 20 to 500 degrees C for undoped and 3wt% nitrogen-doped Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films deposited by DC sputtering. Crystallization of amorphous Ge2Sb2Te5 to its cubic structure phase started at 130 degrees C and then rapid crystal growth developed from cubic to hexagonal phase in the range of 130-350 degrees C; finally, the hexagonal crystals started to melt at 500 degrees C.

Searching ultimate nanometrology for AlOx thickness in magnetic tunnel junction by analytical electron microscopy and X-ray reflectometry.

Practical analyses of the structures of ultrathin multilayers in tunneling magneto resistance (TMR) and Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) devices have been a challenging task because layers are very thin, just 1-2 nm thick. Particularly, the thinness (approximately 1 nm) and chemical properties of the AlOx barrier layer are critical to its magnetic tunneling property. We focused on evaluating the current TEM analytical methods by measuring the thickness and composition of an AlOx layer using several TEM instruments, that is, a round robin test, and cross-checked the thickness results with an X-ray reflectometry (XRR) method.