Abstract.
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) in air is used to study the (110) cleaved surface of strained (100) InxGa1-xAs/ InP heterostructures for different compositions and thicknesses of the ternary compound layers. We find that the elastic strain relaxation induces a surface undulation of a few Å amplitude, even for very small misfits, provided the layers are thick enough. Using finite-element calculations of the strain relaxation near the cleaved edge, we reproduce quantitatively the AFM observations for compressive- as well as for tensile-strained layers with an accuracy better than 0.1 nm. This demonstrates the ability of AFM to quantify strain distributions by making use of surface profile measurements.
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Received: 9 November 1998 / Accepted: 11 March 1999 / Published online: 7 July 1999
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Lelarge, F., Dehaese, O., Kapon, E. et al. Strain relaxation at cleaved surfaces studied by atomic force microscopy . Appl Phys A 69, 347–351 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s003390051012
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s003390051012