Graded InGaN buffers were employed to relax the strain arising from the lattice and thermal mismatch in GaN/InGaN epilayers grown on sapphire. An enhanced strain relaxation was observed in GaN grown on a stack of five InGaN layers, each 200 nm thick with the In content increased in each layer, and with an intermediate thin GaN layer, 10 nm thick inserted between the InGaN layers, as compared to the conventional two-step growth of GaN epilayer on sapphire. The function of the intermediate layer is to progressively relax the strain and to annihilate the dislocations that build up in the InGaN layer. If the InGaN layers were graded too rapidly, more dislocations will be generated. This increases the probability of the dislocations getting entangled and thereby impeding the motion of the dislocations to relax the strain in the InGaN layer. The optimum growth conditions of the intermediate layer play a major role in promoting the suppression and filling of the V-pits in the GaN cap layer, and were empirically found to be a thin 10 nm GaN grown at 750 0°C and annealed at 1000 0°C. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Graded InGaN buffers are employed to relax the strain arising from the lattice and thermal mismatches between GaN/InGaN epilayers grown on sapphire. The formation of V-pits in linearly graded InGaN/GaN bulk epilayers is illustrated. The V-pits were sampled using Atomic Force Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy to examine their variation from the theoretical geometry shape. We discovered that the size of the V-pit opening in linearly graded InGaN, with and without GaN cap layer, has a Gaussian distribution. As such, we deduce that the V-pits are produced at different rates, as the growth of the InGaN layer progresses. In Stage I, the V-pits form at a slow rate at the beginning and then accelerate in Stage II when a critical thickness is reached before decelerating in Stage III after arriving at a mean size. It is possible to fill the V-pits by growing a GaN cap layer. It turns out that the filling of the V-pits is more effective at lower growth temperature of the GaN cap layer and the size of the V-pits opening, which is continued in to GaN cap layer, is not dependent on the GaN cap layer thickness. Furthermore, graded InGaN/GaN layers display better strain relaxation as compared to conventionally grown bulk GaN. By employing a specially design configuration, the V-pits can be eliminated from the InGaN epilayer. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

The strain introduced by lattice mismatch is a built-in characteristic in Si/SiGe heterostructures, which has significant influences on various material properties. Proper design and precise control of strain within Si/SiGe heterostructures, i.e. the so-called “strain engineering”, have become a very important way not only for substantial performance enhancement of conventional microelectronic devices, but also to allow novel device concepts to be integrated with Si chips for new functions, e.g. Si-based optoelectronics. This thesis thus describes studies on two subjects of such strain-engineered Si/SiGe heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The first one focuses on the growth and characterizations of delicately strain-symmetrized Si/SiGe multi-quantum-well/superlattice structures on fully relaxed SiGe virtual substrates for light emission in the THz frequency range. The second one investigates the strain relaxation mechanism of thin SiGe layers during MBE growth and post-growth processes in non-conventional conditions. Two types of THz emitters, based on different quantum cascade (QC) intersubband transition schemes, were studied. The QC emitters using the diagonal transition between two adjacent wells were grown with Si/Si0.7Ge0.3 superlattices up to 100 periods. It was shown that nearly perfect strain symmetry in the superlattice with a high material quality was obtained. The layer parameters were precisely controlled with deviations of ≤ 2 Å in layer thickness and ≤ 1.5 at. % in Ge composition from the designed values. The fabricated emitter devices exhibited a dominating emission peak at ~13 meV (~3 THz), which was consistent with the design. An attempt to produce the first QC THz emitter based on the bound-to-continuum transition was made. The structures with a complicated design of 20 periods of active units were extremely challenging for the growth. Each unit contained 16 Si/Si0.724Ge0.276 superlattice layers, in which the thinnest one was only 8 Å. The growth parameters were carefully studied, and several samples with different boron δ-doping concentrations were grown at optimized conditions. Extensive material characterizations revealed a high crystalline quality of the grown structures with an excellent growth control, while the heavy δ-doping may introduce layer undulations as a result of the non-uniformity in the strain field. Moreover, carrier lifetime dynamics, which is crucial for the THz QC structure design, was also investigated. Strain-symmetrized Si/SiGe multi-quantum-well structures, designed for probing the carrier lifetime of intersubband transitions inside a well between heavy hole 1 (HH1) and light hole 1 (LH1) states with transition energies below the optical phonon energy, were grown on SiGe virtual substrates. The lifetime of the LH1 excited state was determined directly with pump-probe spectroscopy. The measurements indicated an increase of lifetime by a factor of ~2 due to the increasingly unconfined LH1 state, which agreed very well with the theory. It also showed a very long lifetime of several hundred picoseconds for the holes excited out of the well to transit back to the well through a diagonal process. Strained SiGe grown on Si (110) substrates has promising potentials for high-speed microelectronics devices due to the enhanced carrier mobility. Strain relaxation of SiGe/Si(110) subjected to different annealing treatments was studied by X-ray reciprocal space mapping. The in-plane lattice mismatch was found to be asymmetric with the major strain relaxation observed in the lateral [001] direction. It was concluded that this was associated to the formation and propagation of conventional a/2<110> dislocations oriented along [110]. This was different from the relaxation observed during growth, which was mainly along in-plane [110]. A novel MBE growth process to fabricate thin strain-relaxed Si0.6Ge0.4 virtual substrates involving low-temperature (LT) buffer layers was investigated. At a certain LT-buffer growth temperature, a dramatic increase in the strain relaxation accompanied with a decrease of surface roughness was observed in the top SiGe, together with a cross-hatch/cross-hatch-free transition in the surface morphology. It was explained by the association with a certain onset stage of the ordered/disordered transition during the growth of the LT-SiGe buffer. / Kisel(Si)-baserad mikroelektronik har utvecklats under en femtioårsperiod till att bli basen för vår nuvarande informationsteknologi. Förutom att integrera fler och mindre komponenter på varje kisel-chip så utvecklas metoder att modifiera och förbättra materialegenskaperna för att förbättra prestanda ytterligare. Ett sätt att göra detta är att kombinera kisel med germanium (Ge) bl.a. för att skapa kvantstrukturer av nanometer-storlek. Eftersom Ge-atomerna är större än Si-atomerna kan man skapa en töjning i materialet vilket kan förbättra egenskaperna, ex.vis hur snabbt laddningarna (elektronerna) rör sig i materialet. Genom att variera Gekoncentrationen i tunna skikt kan man skapa skikt som är antingen komprimerade eller expanderade och därmed ger möjlighet att göra strukturer för tillverkning av nya typer av komponenter för mikroelektronik eller optoelektronik. I detta avhandlingsarbete har Si/SiGe nanostrukturer tillverkats med molekylstråle-epitaxi-teknik (molecular beam epitaxy, MBE). Med denna teknik byggs materialet upp på ett substrat, atomlager för atomlager, med mycket god kontroll på sammansättningen av varje skikt. Samtidigt kan töjningen av materialet designas så att inga defekter skapas alternativt många defekter genereras på ett kontrollerat sätt. I denna avhandling beskrivs detaljerade studier av hur töjda i/SiGe-strukturer kan tillverkas och ge nya potentiella tillämpningar ex.vis som källa för infraröd strålning. Studierna av de olika töjda skikten har framför allt gjorts med avancerade röntgendiffraktionsmätningar och transmissionselektronmikroskopi.

Developing etching of GaN material system is the key to device fabrications. In this thesis, we report on the fabrication of high throughput lift-off of InGaN/GaN based micro-membrane light emitting diode (LED) from sapphire substrate using UV-assisted photoelectroless chemical (PEsC) etching. Unlike existing bandgap selective etching based on unconventional sacrificial layer, the current hydrofluoric acid based wet etching process enables the selective etching of undoped GaN layer already incorporated in standard commercial LED structures, thus attaining the leverage on high performance device design, and facile wet process technology. The lift-off micro-membrane LED showed 16% alleviated quantum efficiency droop under 200 mA/cm2 current injection, demonstrating the advantage of LED epitaxy exfoliation from the lattice-mismatched sapphire substrate. The origin of the performance improvement was investigated based on non-destructive characterization methods. Photoluminescence (PL) characterization showed a 7nm peak emission wavelength shift in the micro-membrane LED compared to the GaN-on-Sapphire LED. The Raman spectroscopy measurements correlate well with the PL observation that a 0.86 GPa relaxed compressive biaxial strain was achieved after the lift-off process. The micro-membrane LED technology enables further heterogeneous integration for forming pixelated red, green, blue (RGB) display on flexible and transparent substrate. The development of discrete and membrane LEDs using nano-fiber paper as the current spreading layer was also explored for such integration.

The InGaN system provides the opportunity to fabricate light emitting devices over the whole visible and ultraviolet spectrum due to band-gap energies E[subscript g] varying between 3.42 eV for GaN and 1.89 eV for InN. However, high In content in InGaN layers will result in a significant degradation of the crystalline quality of the epitaxial layers. In addition, unlike other III-V compound semiconductors, the ratio of gallium to indium incorporated in InGaN is in general not a simple function of the metal atomic flux ratio, f[subscript Ga]/f[subscript In]. Instead, In incorporation is complicated by the tendency of gallium to incorporate preferentially and excess In to form metallic droplets on the growth surface. This phenomenon can definitely affect the In distribution in the InGaN system. Scanning electron microscopy, room temperature photoluminescence, and X-ray diffraction techniques have been used to characterize InGaN layer grown on InN and InGaN buffers. The growth was done on c-plane sapphire by MOCVD. Results showed that green emission was obtained which indicates a relatively high In incorporation. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Un objectif technologique important de l’industrie des semiconducteurs concerne l’intégration sur Si de semiconducteurs III-V à bande interdite directe tels que InAs et GaAs, pour réaliser des émetteurs et détecteurs de lumière aux longueurs d'onde de télécommunication. L'épitaxie de couches minces d'InAs et de GaAs sur Si est cependant difficile en raison de la grande différence de paramètre de maille entre ces matériaux. Ces films minces épitaxiés présentent une interface de mauvaise qualité limitant les performances de futurs dispositifs. Pour surmonter le défi de l’épitaxie de matériaux à fort désaccord de maille, il a été proposé d’utiliser des nanofils en raison de leur dimension latérale réduite et de leur rapport hauteur/largeur élevé. Ainsi, les nanofils relâchent la contrainte par relaxation élastique sur la paroi latérale des nanofils. Dans ce contexte, ma thèse visait à faire croître des hétérostructures axiales de nanofils GaAs/InAs sur des substrats Si pour réaliser des émetteurs à photons uniques. Lors de ce travail expérimental, j'ai fait croître des nanofils par le mécanisme vapeur-solide-liquide assisté par catalyseurs d'or dans un réacteur d'épitaxie par jet moléculaire. Les nanofils ont ensuite été caractérisés en utilisant la spectroscopie à rayons X par dispersion d'énergie et la microscopie électronique à transmission pour évaluer leur composition et leur structure cristalline. La distribution de la contrainte a été étudiée expérimentalement par analyse de phase géométrique, puis comparée à des simulations par éléments finis. Au cours de cette thèse, j'ai abordé différents défis inhérents aux hétérostructures axiales de nanofils, tels que la formation de nanofils tordus, la composition graduelle de l’interface et la croissance radiale parasite. J'ai d'abord optimisé le protocole de croissance pour éviter la formation de nanofils tordus. Les nanofils changent habituellement de direction de croissance lorsque le catalyseur d'or à l'extrémité du nanofil a été déstabilisé. En gardant une forte sursaturation dans la gouttelette d'or pendant toute la procédure de croissance, j’ai obtenu des nanofils droits d’InAs/GaAs avec un rendement de 92%. J’ai alors optimisé les flux de matériaux pour réduire la composition graduelle de l'interface entre les segments d’InAs et de GaAs. Grâce à l'analyse de la composition chimique des nanofils, j'ai observé que le segment nominalement pur d’InAs est en fait un alliage ternaire InxGa1-xAs. J'ai découvert que l'incorporation de Ga dans le segment nominal InAs est due à la diffusion d'adatomes Ga créés thermiquement sur les nanofils GaAs et sur la couche de GaAs bidimensionnelle développée sur le substrat de Si. L'utilisation de diamètres larges de nanofils supprime la diffusion de Ga le long des parois latérales des nanofils, permettant ainsi la croissance d’un segment d’InAs pur au-dessus de celui de GaAs. Enfin, j'ai étudié la distribution de la contrainte de 7% à l’interface InAs/GaAs. Celle-ci est répartie le long du nanofil et dépend du diamètre du nanofil et de la composition de l'interface. J'ai observé que les nanofils de diamètre inférieur à 40 nm sont exempts de dislocations: la contrainte est relaxée élastiquement via la courbure des plans cristallins proches des parois latérales du nanofil. D'autre part, les nanofils avec des diamètres supérieurs à 95 nm relaxent à la fois élastiquement et plastiquement, par une courbure des plans et la formation de dislocations. En conclusion, j'ai fabriqué des hétérostructures de matériaux à fort désaccord de maille. J’ai pu confirmer que les interfaces axiales GaAs/InAs sont pseudomorphiques en dessous d'un certain diamètre critique. Ces résultats constituent une première étape vers la réalisation de boîtes quantiques InAs dans des nanofils de GaAs intégrés sur Si: un système prometteur pour l'émission de photons uniques sur puce. / Combining direct bandgap III-V compound semiconductors, such as InAs and GaAs, with silicon to realize on-chip optical light emitters and detectors at telecommunication wavelengths is an important technological objective. However, traditional thin film epitaxy of InAs and GaAs on silicon is challenging because of the high lattice mismatch between the involved materials. These epitaxial thin films exhibit a poor quality at the interface with silicon, limiting the performance of future devices. Nanowires can overcome the mismatch challenge owing to their small lateral size and high aspect ratio. Thanks to their free, unconstrained surfaces, nanowires release the mismatch strain via elastic lateral relaxation. In this context, my thesis aimed at growing axial GaAs/InAs nanowire heterostructures on silicon substrates to realize on-chip, integrated, single-photon emitters. In this experimental work, I grew nanowires by gold-assisted vapor liquid solid mechanism in a molecular beam epitaxy reactor. The nanowires were then characterized using energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy to evaluate their composition and crystalline structure. Strain distribution was studied experimentally using geometrical phase analysis and compared theoretically with finite element simulations, performed with the COMSOL software. During this thesis, I tackled different challenges inherent to axial nanowire heterostructures, such as kinking during material exchange, compositionally graded interfaces, and radial overgrowth. First, I developed an optimized a growth protocol to prevent the formation of kinks. Kinks usually appear when the gold catalyst at the nanowire tip has been destabilized. By keeping a high supersaturation in the gold droplet during the entire growth procedure, straight InAs-on-GaAs nanowires were achieved with a yield exceeding 90%. By a careful tuning of the material fluxes supplied during growth, I significantly improved the interface sharpness between the InAs and GaAs nanowire segments: the use of a high In flux during the growth of the InAs segment resulted in a 5 nm composition gradient at the InAs/GaAs interface. Through the careful analysis of the nanowires’ chemical composition, I observed that the nominally pure InAs segments grown on top of GaAs are in fact ternary InxGa1-xAs alloys. I found out that Ga incorporation in the nominal InAs segment is due to the diffusion of Ga adatoms thermally created on the GaAs nanowire sidewalls and on the two-dimensional GaAs layer grown on silicon substrate. I demonstrated that the use of large nanowire diameters prevents Ga diffusion along the nanowire sidewalls, resulting in the growth of pure InAs segments on top of GaAs. Finally, I studied how 7% mismatch strain at the InAs/GaAs interface is distributed along the nanowire, depending on the nanowire diameter and interface sharpness. I observed that nanowires with diameters below 40 nm are free of misfit dislocations regardless of the interface sharpness: strain is fully, elastically released via crystalline planes bending close to the nanowire sidewalls. On the other hand, nanowires with diameters above 95 nm at the interface exhibit strain relaxation, both elastically and plastically, via plane bending and the formation of misfit dislocations, respectively. In conclusion, I have successfully fabricated highly mismatched heterostructures, confirming the prediction that axial GaAs/InAs interfaces are pseudomorphic below a certain critical diameter. These findings establish a first step towards the realization of high quality InAs quantum dots in GaAs nanowires on silicon: a promising system for on-chip single photon emission.

Dans ce travail, nous avons étudié la relaxation de couches d’hétérostructures InGaN/GaN obtenue par épitaxie en phase vapeur aux organométalliques (EPVOM) et épitaxie aux jets moléculaires (EJM) principalement par microscopie électronique en transmission (MET). Pour ce faire, nous avons fait varier la composition de l'indium de 4.1% au nitrure d'indium pur, ce qui correspond lors de la croissance sur GaN à un décalage paramétrique allant de 1% à 11.3%. Le travail a porté sur des couches dont l’épaisseur allait de 7 nm à 500 nm. A partir d’une composition en indium voisine de 10%, nous mettons en évidence la formation d’un réseau de dislocations vis dont la ligne se promène dans l’interface, avec de très longues sections droites le long des directions <11-20>. Ces dislocations coexistent avec un réseau de dislocations coins qui commence à se former vers 13%, il disparait complétement autour d’une composition en indium de 18%. Le réseau de dislocation vis se densifie de plus en plus au-delà. Outre ces dislocations de décalage paramétrique, d'autres mécanismes qui contribuent à la relaxation de la contrainte dans ces hétérostructures InGaN/GaN ont été mis en évidence. Ainsi, au-dessus d'une composition d'indium supérieure à 25%, de nombreux phénomènes se produisent simultanément. (1) Formation des dislocations de décalage paramétrique à l'hétérointerface; (2) une composition de la couche qui s’enrichit en indium vers la surface; (3) des fortes perturbations de la séquence hexagonale conduisant à un empilement aléatoire; (4) croissance à trois dimensions (3D) pouvant même conduire à des couches poreuses lorsque la composition en indium est comprise entre 40% et 85%. Cependant, on met en évidence qu’il est possible de faire croître de l’InN pur de bonne qualité cristalline s'améliore grâce à la formation systématique d'une couche 3D. / In this work, we have investigated the strain relaxation of InGaN layers grown on GaN templates by MOVPE and PAMBE using TEM. To this end we varied the indium composition from 4.1% to pure indium nitride and the corresponding mismatch was changing from less than 1% to 11.3%, the thickness of the InGaN layers was from 7 nm to 500 nm. When the indium composition is around 10%, one would expect mostly elastically strained layers with no misfit dislocations. However, we found that screw dislocations form systematically at the InGaN/GaN interface. Moreover, below 18% indium composition, screw and edge dislocations coexist, whereas starting at 18%, only edge dislocations were observed in these interfaces. Apart from the edge dislocations (misfit dislocations), other mechanisms have been pointed out for the strain relaxation. It is found that above an indium composition beyond 25%, many phenomena take place simultaneously. (1) Formation of the misfit dislocations at the heterointerface; (2) composition pulling with the surface layer being richer in indium in comparison to the interfacial layer; (3) disruption of the growth sequence through the formation of a random stacking sequence; (4) three dimentional (3D) growth which can even lead to porous layers when the indium composition is between 40% and 85%. However, pure InN is grown, the crystalline quality improves through a systematic formation of a 3D layer.

In dieser Arbeit untersuchen wir die grundlegenden Wachstums- und Relaxationsprozesse, die es erlauben den Verzerrungszustand von GaN (0001) beim Wachstum auf Silizium (111) Substraten einzustellen und die resultierende Dichte an Durchstoßversetzungen zu reduzieren. Zu deren Analyse werden GaN (0001) Schichten, die mittels metallorganischer Gasphasenepitaxy abgeschieden worden sind, hauptsächlich mit transmissionselekronenmikroskopischen Methoden untersucht. Die wesentlichen Erkenntnisse der Arbeit sind: (i) Der Aufbau einer kompressiven Verzerrung von GaN (0001) Filmen mittels AlGaN Zwischenschichten beruht auf einer Asymmetrie der plastischen Relaxation an den beiden Grenzflächen der AlGaN Zwischenschicht. Fehlpassungsversetzungen bilden sich zwar an beiden Grenzflächen aus, jedoch ist der mittlere Abstand zwischen Versetzungslinien an der unteren Grenzfläche kleiner, als an der oberen. (ii) Plastische Relaxation von verzerrten (0001) Wurtzit Schichten erfolgt im Wesentlichen durch Bildung von a-Typ Fehlpassungsversetzungen im 1/3 |{0001} Gleitsystem. Diese bilden sich aber nur dann, wenn die verzerrten Schichten eine 3-D Morphologie aufweisen. Eine quantitative Modellierung dieses Prozesses zeigt, dass die kritische Schichtdicke für das Einsetzen der plastischen Relaxation wesentlich vom Wachstumsmodus bestimmt wird. (iii) Eine Silizium Delta-Dotierung der GaN (0001) Oberfläche führt zum Wachstum einer kohärenten Sub-Monolage SiGaN3, die eine periodisch Anordnung von Silizium- und Galliumatomen, sowie Galliumvakanzen aufweist. Da das Wachstum von GaN direkt auf der SiGaN3-Monolage unterdrückt ist, tritt ein Übergang zu 3-D Inselwachstum auf, das zunächst ausschließlich in Löchern der SiGaN3-Monolage anfängt. Eine hohe Konzentration von Silizium auf der GaN (0001) Oberfläche wirkt also als Anti-Surfactant beim epitaktischen Wachstum von GaN. Rechnungen mittels der Dichtefunktionaltheorie liefern Erklärungen für das beobachtete Wachstumsverhalten. / In this work we study the basic growth and relaxation processes that are used for strain and dislocation engineering in the growth of GaN (0001) films on silicon (111) substrates. To analyse these processes, samples, grown by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy were investigate by means of transmission electron microscopy. Our investigations have revealed the following main results: (i) Strain engineering and build-up of compressive strain in GaN (0001) films by means of AlGaN interlayer is based on an asymmetry in plastic relaxation between the two interfaces of the AlGaN interlayer. Although misfit dislocation networks form at both interfaces of the interlayer, the average spacing of dislocation lines at the lower interface is smaller than that at the upper one. (ii) Plastic relaxation of strained (0001) wurtzite films is caused mainly by formation of a-type misfit dislocations in the 1/3 |{0001} slip-system. These a-type misfit dislocations form once the strained films undergo a transition to a 3-D surface morphology, e.g. by island growth or cracking. Quantitative modelling of this process reveals that the critical thickness for nucleation of a-type misfit dislocations depends next to the lattice mismatch mainly on the growth mode of the film. (iii) Silicon delta-doping of the GaN (0001) surface leads to the growth of a coherent sub-monolayer of SiGaN3 that shows a periodic arrangement of silicon and gallium atoms and gallium vacancies. Since growth of thick GaN layers directly on top of the SiGaN3-monolayer is inhibited a transition towards 3-D island growth occurs, whereby GaN islands exclusively nucleate at openings in the SiGaN3-monolayer. A high concentration of silicon on the GaN (0001) surface thus acts as an anti-surfactant in the epitaxial growth of GaN. Our density functional theory calculations provide an explanation for both the self-limited growth of the SiGaN3-monolayer, as well as for the blocking of GaN growth on top of the SiGaN3-monolayer.

La diffraction électronique en mode précession (PED) est une méthode récente d’acquisition de clichésde diffraction permettant de minimiser les interactions dynamiques. L’objectif de cette thèse est dedévelopper une méthodologie d’acquisition et de traitement des clichés de diffraction en modeprécession afin de mesurer les champs de déformation en combinant une résolution spatialenanométrique et une sensibilité inférieure à 10-3 typiquement obtenues par d’autres techniques usuellesde microscopie, telle que l’imagerie haute-résolution. Les mesures ont été réalisées sur un JEOL 2010Aéquipé du module de précession Digistar produit par la société Nanomegas.Un système modèle constitué de multicouches Si/SiGe de concentrations connues en Ge a été utilisépour évaluer les performances de la méthodologie développée dans cette thèse. Les résultats indiquentune sensibilité sur la mesure de contraintes qui atteint, au mieux, 1x10-4 et un accord excellent avec lescontraintes simulées par éléments finis. Cette nouvelle méthode a pu ensuite être appliquée sur despuits quantique d’InGaAs et sur des transistors de type Ω−gate.La dernière partie traite d’un nouvel algorithme permettant d’évaluer de manière robuste et rapide lapolycristallinité des matériaux à partir d’une mesure PED. Nous donnons des exemples d’applicationde cette méthode sur divers dispositifs / Precession electron diffraction (PED) is a recent technique used to minimize acquired diffractionpatterns dynamic effects. The primary intention of this PhD work is to improve PED (PrecessionElectron Diffraction) data analysis and treatment methodologies in order to measure the strain at thenanoscale. The strain measurement is intended to reach a 10-3 strain precision as well as usualmicroscopy techniques like high-resolution imaging. To this end, measurements were made with aJEOL 2010A with a Digistar Nanomegas precession module.The approach developed has been used and tested by measuring the strain in a Si/SiGe multilayeredreference sample with a known Ge Content. Strain measurements reached 1x10-4 sensitivity withexcellent finite element strain simulation agreement. This process has been also applied to measure thestrain in microelectronic InGaAs Quantum Well and an "Ω-gate" experimental transistor devices.The second approach developed has been made to provide a robust means of studying electrontransparent nanomaterial polycrystallinity with precession. Examples of applications of this analysismethod are shown on different devices.

La diffraction électronique en mode précession (PED) est une méthode récente d’acquisition de clichésde diffraction permettant de minimiser les interactions dynamiques. L’objectif de cette thèse est dedévelopper une méthodologie d’acquisition et de traitement des clichés de diffraction en modeprécession afin de mesurer les champs de déformation en combinant une résolution spatialenanométrique et une sensibilité inférieure à 10-3 typiquement obtenues par d’autres techniques usuellesde microscopie, telle que l’imagerie haute-résolution. Les mesures ont été réalisées sur un JEOL 2010Aéquipé du module de précession Digistar produit par la société Nanomegas.Un système modèle constitué de multicouches Si/SiGe de concentrations connues en Ge a été utilisépour évaluer les performances de la méthodologie développée dans cette thèse. Les résultats indiquentune sensibilité sur la mesure de contraintes qui atteint, au mieux, 1x10-4 et un accord excellent avec lescontraintes simulées par éléments finis. Cette nouvelle méthode a pu ensuite être appliquée sur despuits quantique d’InGaAs et sur des transistors de type Ω−gate.La dernière partie traite d’un nouvel algorithme permettant d’évaluer de manière robuste et rapide lapolycristallinité des matériaux à partir d’une mesure PED. Nous donnons des exemples d’applicationde cette méthode sur divers dispositifs / Precession electron diffraction (PED) is a recent technique used to minimize acquired diffractionpatterns dynamic effects. The primary intention of this PhD work is to improve PED (PrecessionElectron Diffraction) data analysis and treatment methodologies in order to measure the strain at thenanoscale. The strain measurement is intended to reach a 10-3 strain precision as well as usualmicroscopy techniques like high-resolution imaging. To this end, measurements were made with aJEOL 2010A with a Digistar Nanomegas precession module.The approach developed has been used and tested by measuring the strain in a Si/SiGe multilayeredreference sample with a known Ge Content. Strain measurements reached 1x10-4 sensitivity withexcellent finite element strain simulation agreement. This process has been also applied to measure thestrain in microelectronic InGaAs Quantum Well and an "Ω-gate" experimental transistor devices.The second approach developed has been made to provide a robust means of studying electrontransparent nanomaterial polycrystallinity with precession. Examples of applications of this analysismethod are shown on different devices.