The Semiconductor Defect Spectroscopy Laboratory at SFU housed instruments to investigate the electronic and structural properties of semiconductor defects. These complementary measurement methods included techniques having nanoscale spatial resolution.

Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) is one of the primary methods for investigating electronic states of defects in semiconductors. Our state-of-the-art SULA Technologies instruments were configured to investigate a wide range of materials. Standard DLTS measurements as well as DDLTS, CCDLTS, and CTS measurements were performed in the temperature range from 4 to 700 K. Capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current-voltage (I-V) measurements to characterize p-n junction and Schottky diodes and MOS capacitors were performed over the same temperature range or at room temperature on our probe station.

Our Panalytical X'Pert Pro Materials Research Diffractometer was configured to have the maximum available x-ray intensity at high resolution for studies of lattice mismatched epitaxial films and engineered micro and nanostructures. Measuring the crystal lattice parameter allowed us to monitor strain in a wide variety of structures and to thus investigate strain relaxation processes which may involve the introduction of defects.

Our Asylum Scanning Probe Microscope was used for atomic force microscopy (AFM) and a variety of other SPM scanning modes. The ORCA module provided the capability of doing spatially resolved current measurements. For example, AFM measurements of the surface topography are useful for detecting the presence of misfit dislocations in semiconductor films.