We report on the structural properties of Ge_(1-x)Mn_x layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy. In these layers, nanocolumns with a high Mn content are embedded in an almost-pure Ge matrix. We have used grazing-incidence X-ray scattering, atomic force
and transmission electron microscopy to study the structural properties of the columns. We demonstrate how the elastic deformation of the matrix (as calculated using atomistic simulations) around the columns, as well as the average inter-column distance can account for the shape of the diffusion around Bragg peaks.
Coherent diffraction imaging (CDI) on Bragg reflections is a promising technique for the study of three-dimensional (3D) composition and strain fields in nanostructures, which can be recovered directly from the coherent diffraction data recorded on s
ingle objects. In this article we report results obtained for single homogeneous and heterogeneous nanowires with a diameter smaller than 100 nm, for which we used CDI to retrieve information about deformation and faults existing in these wires. The article also discusses the influence of stacking faults, which can create artefacts during the reconstruction of the nanowire shape and deformation.
Photonic or electronic confinement effects in nanostructures become significant when one of their dimension is in the 5-300 nm range. Improving their development requires the ability to study their structure - shape, strain field, interdiffusion maps
- using novel techniques. We have used coherent diffraction imaging to record the 3-dimensionnal scattered intensity of single silicon nanowires with a lateral size smaller than 100 nm. We show that this intensity can be used to recover the hexagonal shape of the nanowire with a 28nm resolution. The article also discusses limits of the method in terms of radiation damage.
