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short communications
Quantitative information on a subsurface layer structure is obtained through the determination of the photoelectron escape depth by using the photoelectrons emitted by an X-ray standing wavefield in the range of dynamical X-ray diffraction from high-quality crystals. A simple method to determine the mean escape depth L of low-energy-loss photoelectrons is proposed, based on the analysis of the phase of the X-ray standing wavefield in a specially designed epitaxic structure grown by molecular-beam epitaxy. The value L = 24 nm is obtained for GaSb crystals with Cu Kα1 radiation as a probe. As an example of the complimentary application of the technique, an Sb-based single-quantum-well structure was analysed by using both high-resolution X-ray diffraction and the X-ray standing-wave method.