Contract Measurements

Sirius XRS provides contract measurements in the following areas:

X-ray Thin Film Analysis

X-ray thin film analysis provides valuable information about the thickness, density, interface roughness, lattice strain, strain relaxation and compositional variations of thin films and multilayers
using different techniques, listed below.
X-ray Reflectifity (XRR)

X-ray reflectivity is based on the constructive interference of X-rays scattered from the surface of the thin film and the different interfaces between the sublayers of the multilayer stacks. Measuring the XRR curves and subsequient state-of-the-art fitting allows determination of the thickness and the density of the layers as well as the roughness and roughness correlations of the different interfaces.

Gracing Incidence X-ray Scattering (GIXS)
X-ray scattering  under grazing incidence  reduces  the penetration depth of the incoming X-rays and thus allows measurements of  nanometer thin films excluding the signal of the substrate as well as determination of in-depth stacking sequence of different sublayers.

High Resolution X-ray Diffraction (HRXRD)

Rocking Curves

Rocking curves measurements is a high-resolution X-ray diffraction method for determination of peak displacement and broadening of the Bragg peaks due to lattice (mismatch) strain, dislocations or compositional variations, typically in semiconductor epitaxial layers, quantum dots and semiconductor devices.

Reciprocal Space Mapping (RSM)

Reciprocal space mapping is a complementary high-resolution X-ray diffraction method for measurement and separation of  the effects of peak displacement, broadening and overlapp of the Bragg peaks due to lattice (mismatch) strain, dislocations or compositional variations, typically in semiconductor epitaxial layers, quantum dots and semiconductor devices.

X-ray Diffraction Analysis (XRD)

X-ray diffraction analysis provides a wide variety of information about the structure of crystalline and amorphous materials.

Sirius XRS  uses  state-of-the-art XRD techniques for phase identification and determination of:

Residual Stresses

Residual stresses in materials can arise during different processing, e.g heat treatement or machining. In measuring residual stress using X-ray diffraction, the strain in the crystal lattice is measured first as shifts of the Bragg peaks and the associated residual stress is determined then from the elastic constants assuming a linear elastic response.

Lattice Distortions and Disorder
The presence of stacking faults, dislocations and grain boundaries affect strongly the physical properties of materials, e.g. yield stress, ductility, kinetics of recrystallization etc. These lattice distortions lead to broadening of the diffractions peaks, which can be measured and analysed using integral breath, Fourier and/or full-pattern mathods, thus providing valuable information about the average crystallite size, average microstrains, dislocation density and crystallite size distribution.
Degree of Crystallinity
The physical and mechanical properties of polymers are profoundly dependent on the degree of crystallinity. This parameter plays also important role in the theories of crystallization of glasses.  It is well known that the degree of crystallinity can be determined by a variety of physical methods, for example, X-ray diffraction, calorimetry, infrared spectroscopy, etc. Determination of degree of crystallinity by X-ray diffraction, using the Ruland’s method, is considered inherently superior to other methods and generally does not require fully amorphous and/or fully crystalline standards.
Structure of Glasses
Amorphous materials and glasses do not posses long-range order like crystalline materials. The diffraction patterns of amorphous materials consist of only a few broad diffuse peaks. Nevertheless, measurement of the diffraction patterns in a wide angular range, corrections for different physical abberations and subsequent radial distribution function analysis allows determination of the average interatomic distances, the average coordination numbers in the first coordination spher,the presence of chemical short- and medium range order in amorphous materials.