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Origin of Threefold Periodicity in High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy Images of Thin Film Cubic SiC

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2003

U. Kaiser
Affiliation:
Institut für Festkörperphysik, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, D-07743 Jena, Germany
A. Chuvilin
Affiliation:
Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, SB RAS, Av. Lavrentieva 5, Novosibirsk 90, Russia, 630090
P.D. Brown
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QZ, UK
W. Richter
Affiliation:
Institut für Festkörperphysik, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, D-07743 Jena, Germany
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Abstract

Abstract: High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images of the [1–10] zone of cubic SiC layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) often reveal regions of material exhibiting an unusual threefold periodicity. The same contrast was found in earlier works of Jepps and Page, who attributed this contrast in HRTEM images of polycrystalline SiC to the 9R-SiC polytype. In this report we demonstrate by HRTEM image simulations that the model of the 9R polytype and an alternative twinning model can fit qualitatively the experimental HRTEM images. However, by comparing the fast Fourier transform (FFT) patterns of the experiments and the simulations, as well as by using dark-field imaging, we show unambiguously that only the model of overlapping twinned 3C-SiC crystals fully agrees with the experiments.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2001 Cambridge University Press

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