Determination by high-resolution X-ray diffraction of shape, size and lateral separation of buried empty channels in silicon-on-nothing architectures

High-resolution multi-crystal X-ray diffraction was employed to characterize silicon-on-nothing samples made by a one-dimensional periodic planar array of buried empty channels. When the channels are normal to the scattering plane, under the constraint of lattice continuity from the perfect substrate to the surface, this periodic array gives rise to a well defined Fraunhofer diffraction in a scan crossing a selected reciprocal lattice point and normal to the reciprocal lattice vector (transverse or ω scan). In a longitudinal scan (ω/2θ scan crossing the reciprocal lattice point and parallel to the reciprocal lattice vector) interference fringes are observed. By analysis of the ω scan and numerical fit of the ω/2θ scan, the period of the buried empty channels and their shape, size and lateral gap were easily determined, thanks to the high-resolution optics used for the measurements.