Advanced Materials Characterization


Research on the characterization of advanced materials is being undertaken as a joint project of national institutes in Tsukuba (NIRIM, NIMCR, ETL and NRLM) at a beamline which has a 27-pole wiggler/undulator. Its purpose is the advanced analysis of materials, in particular, in-situ structure analysis during the synthesis process, which may involve the use of high temperature/pressure, molecular beam epitaxy(MBE) and surface reactions. Understanding the process of synthesis of materials is important in designing of materials with exotic properties and functions.

The structure of Ge epitaxial overlayers grown by MBE on Si(001) has been studied by in-situ surface-sensitive XAFS. The osciilatory intensities of reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) during the growth of Ge overlayers are used to control the number of Ge layers. The Ge K-EXAFS spectra for Ge overlayers on Si(001) have been obtained by detecting the Ge fluorescence signal in a total reflection geometry where only the sub-surface (5nm) region is probed. The figure indicates the elongated dimer structure for 1ML Ge on Si(001). Detailed analysis of the EXAFS profiles indicates evidence for a surface site exchange induced by site-selective strains for 2ML Ge on Si(001).
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