Abstract
The smart engineering of novel semiconductor devices relies on the development of optimized functional materials suitable for the design of improved systems with advanced capabilities aside from better efficiencies. Thereby, the characterization of these materials at the highest level attainable is crucial for leading a proper understanding of their working principle. Due to the striking effect of atomic features on the behavior of semiconductor quantum- and nanostructures, scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) tools have been broadly employed for their characterization. Indeed, STEM provides a manifold characterization tool achieving insights on, not only the atomic structure and chemical composition of the analyzed materials, but also probing internal electric fields, plasmonic oscillations, light emission, band gap determination, electric field measurements, and many other properties. The emergence of new detectors and novel instrumental designs allowing the simultaneous collection of several signals render the perfect playground for the development of highly customized experiments specifically designed for the required analyses. This paper presents some of the most useful STEM techniques and several strategies and methodologies applied to address the specific analysis on semiconductors. STEM imaging, spectroscopies, 4D-STEM (in particular DPC), and in situ STEM are summarized, showing their potential use for the characterization of semiconductor nanostructured materials through recent reported studies.
Highlights
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transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques may be first catalogued as those performed illuminating the region of interest using a parallel electron beam (TEM), and those employing an electron beam probe scanning the area of interest
We present different scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) spectroscopies, namely electron energyIn the following, we present different STEM spectroscopies, namely electron energyloss spectroscopy, energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS), energy dispersive X-ray, EDX, and cathodoluminiscence, CL, loss spectroscopy, EELS, energy dispersive X-ray, EDX, and cathodoluminiscence, CL, showing the latest breakthroughs regarding semiconductor materials
Summary
Advances in the development of novel and improved functional materials require deep characterization analyses to fully understand and exploit their physical properties Within this context, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a powerful tool providing a broad variety of techniques, which allow in-depth analyses of the materials’ micro-/nano-/atomic structure and composition, as well as addressing some related physical properties. In the case of semiconductor materials, there are many studies focusing on STEM characterizations to cover their structural properties, including structural defects, atomic ordering, polarity, and related phenomena such as growth mechanisms, strain relaxation, and quantum structures, as well as those addressing the electronic and opto-electronic properties, as reviewed elsewhere [3] for the case of 1D nanostructures (nanowires).
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