Application of high-resolution electron microscopy for visualization and quantitative analysis of strain fields in heterostructures

The general principles, possibilities, and limitations of the classical geometric phase method have been considered. A new generalizing approach, implying analysis of all available spatial frequencies of a high-resolution electron microscopy image, is developed to expand the possibilities of the geometric phase method. Test models of strained Si-GeSi-Si heterostructures are developed and the effect of scattering by phonons and the surface amorphous layer on visualization of lattice distortions is studied within these models. A simple method is proposed for measuring elastic strains in multicomponent heterostructures with pseudomorphic layers.