Improving spatial resolution of convergent beam electron diffraction strain mapping in silicon microstructures

Despite the use of nanometer-sized probes in field emission transmission electron microscopes, the spatial resolution in strain analysis performed by convergent beam electron diffraction is limited in one direction by the need for tilting the cross-sectional sample in the electron microscope off the vertical <110> direction. We demonstrate that it is possible to improve this resolution by using the <340> zone axis, instead of the <230> one, which has recently become of common use in the analysis of silicon microdevices. Quantitative strain information with good sensitivity and accuracy can be obtained in the new axis. An example of application to the two-dimensional strain mapping in shallow trench isolation structures, obtained with a scanning attachment and a high-angle annular dark-field detector, is reported.