ABSTRACT
Recognition of defects and their subsequent characterization has to be carried out on a nanoscopic level to ensure that even smallest structures with modified material properties can be evaluated. This is a trivial need due to the fact that the oncoming generation of ULSI devices will rely on device structures in a range which is aiming towards the lower nanometre regime. In the same manner, aside of this mean stream, lots of new types of devices are coming up, essentially consisting of heterostructured systems, whose structure sizes are already hitting the 1 nm barrier.
Scanning probe microscopes allow a topographic evaluation of semiconductors with nm resolution already commercially. However, implementation of additional tip-specimen-interaction-mechanisms permits to extend the mere topological imaging system to a very versatile nanocharacterization tool. In this manner various modifications have been developed to investigate the electrical, electronical as well as optical, opto-electronical and last but not least thermal, mechanical properties of the specimen under test.
In this paper the usability of the combination of scanning probe microscopy with scanning electron microscopy will be explained and demonstrated exemplarily on diamond.
