LAUSR

Dislocation contrast in the SEM, as observed though electron channelling contrast imaging (ECCI), is commonly treated analogously to the contrast in the TEM. This perception is based on early studies done for dislocations parallel with the surface where the surface relaxation is negligible. However, for threading dislocations (TD) that interact with the surface (normal or inclined), as is the case for nitrides materials, g b type invisibility criteria are no longer fully applicable to ECCI, especially in forward geometry [1]. Dislocations change locally the lattice curvature and Bragg diffraction conditions in the crystal, affecting the form and diffracting behaviour of the electron wavefunction in that region. More explicitly, Howie and Whelan [2] had shown that dislocation contrast is the result of interband transitions between Bloch waves states which, in turn, are caused by the change in the displacement field, u(r), around the dislocation or local “strain”. Dynamical models have been used successfully to both predict and characterise dislocations in ECCI [3]. Nevertheless, the behaviour of dislocation contrast in ECCI in particular and diffraction contrast in the SEM in general remains somewhat opaque. In the work we investigate the behaviour of contrast causing strain as a means of insight into this problem.