A new method for the measurement of thickness in single crystals

A new method for thickness determination of single-crystal thin samples at exact zone axis orientation, based on pattern recognition in convergent bea m electron diffraction (CBED), is presented. The method is especially well suited to materials with a large unit cell in zone axis directions where th e reciprocal lattice is uniformly dense with diffraction points. The new me thod is based on comparison of a measured CBED zone axis pattern with a set of calculated ones. Its accuracy was estimated to be around 10% in the 5-1 00 nm thickness range as checked for garnets at the [111] zone orientation. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.