High resolution X-ray Diffractometer for MBE-grown novel quantum device research

目前正在展开的技术革命带来了个人电脑、高速互联网、数码相机和平板显示器——仅举商品部门为例——其根源可以直接追溯到人造材料薄膜工程的进步，以及它们随后被加工成具有良好控制功能的更小的设备。高性能的电子器件，如用于个人电脑、智能手机或卫星的晶体管，以及沿着万维网的光纤以令人难以置信的速度推动数字信息的半导体激光器、放大器和探测器等光子器件，都是基于高度完美的晶体多层半导体材料，这些材料以所谓的外延工艺沉积在适当选择的晶体衬底上。这些器件的性能主要取决于单个子层的确切厚度和组成，有些只有几纳米厚。能够达到这种精度的外延技术的发展，相关的校准和持续的过程监控都需要常规使用的计量工具，非破坏性的，满足严格的分辨率和精度要求。对于依赖外延结构的半导体工业和研发来说，只有一种这样的工具-高分辨率x射线衍射仪（HR-XRD），这是本资助申请的主题。这个工具对于分子束外延（MBE）实验室主持和支持的研究项目的成功至关重要，该实验室目前正在滑铁卢大学的新量子纳米中心建立，预计将在2013年第二季度全面投入使用。该实验室的重点将是基于（In, Al, Ga）（As, Sb）半导体材料的先进量子器件的外延生长，用于光子学，纳米电子学，自旋电子学和量子计算的突破性研究项目，解决加拿大高科技部门在环境监测，替代清洁能源，健康，安全和ICT方面的短期和长期挑战。

The roots of the currently unfolding technological revolution which brought about personal computers, fast internet, digital cameras and flat panel displays-to mention just the commodity sector-can be traced directly to the advances in engineering of very thin films of artificial materials and their subsequent processing into ever smaller devices with well controlled functionalities. The highest performance electronic devices, such as transistors used in PCs, smartphones or satellites and the photonic devices such as semiconductor lasers, amplifiers and detectors which are pushing digital information with incredible rates along the optical fibers of the world wide web, are all based on highly perfect crystalline multilayers of semiconductor materials which are deposited in the so-called epitaxial process on suitably chosen crystalline substrates. The performance of these devices depends critically on the exact thicknesses and compositions of the individual sub-layers, some just a few nanometers thick. Development of the epitaxial techniques capable of such precision, related calibrations and ongoing process monitoring all require metrology tools which can be used routinely, be non-destructive and meet the strict requirements of resolution and accuracy. For the semiconductor industry and R&D which relies on epitaxial structures there is only one such tool - the High Resolution X-ray Diffractometer (HR-XRD), the subject of the present grant application. This tool is crucial to the success of the research programs hosted in and supported by the Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) laboratory which is being presently set up in the new Quantum Nano Centre at the University of Waterloo and is expected to be fully operational in the second quarter of 2013. The focus of the lab will be on the epitaxial growth of advanced quantum devices based on (In, Al, Ga)(As, Sb) semiconductor materials for ground-breaking research programs in photonics, nanoelectronics, spintronics and quantum computing that address both short and long term challenges of Canadian high-tech sectors in environmental monitoring, alternative clean energy sources, health, security and ICT.