Planar MeV ion channeling on strained buried nanofilms

Planar MeV ion channeling experiments have been used to characterize a buried Si1-xGex film with a thickness of 2.2 nm in a silicon host crystal. The tetragonal deformation in the film shows up as a translation of the {0 1 1} planes across the film, which was measured as a step in the yield of the planar channeled Rutherford backscattering spectra. The flux distribution between the planes acts as a probe for the position of the planes. The angular dependence of the step height has been measured for different incident ion energies and interpreted with Monte Carlo calculations. Simulations only resemble the measured spectra when the Hartree–Fock potential is used for the ion–atom interaction. The translation of the planes can be measured with an accuracy of approximately 10%, which is comparable to results obtained with axial channeling experiments