A new method for analysing peak broadening caused by compositional fluctuation in X-ray diffraction measurements

A new method for analysing X-ray peak broadening caused by compositional fluctuation is proposed. The method is applicable to epitaxial layers with diamond or zinc-blende structure on (001) substrates. In the new method, a rescaling procedure with a difference variable ΔA is applied to measured X-ray profiles and the dependence of the profiles on various reflection indices hkl is analysed. The theoretical formula reveals that X-ray peak profiles become independent of hkl after the rescaling. A new criterion is proposed; an experimental examination based on the criterion makes it possible simply to judge whether or not X-ray peak broadening is caused by compositional fluctuation. The method is verified experimentally and demonstrated by applying it to an InGaAs multilayer sample having artificial compositional fluctuation.