A Convergent Beam, Parallel Detection X-ray Diffraction System for Characterizing Combinatorial Epitaxial Thin Films

Multi-component epitaxial thin films have been studied extensively to produce new functional materials, such as superconductors and optical and magnetic devices. In order to optimize the material properties and obtain high-performance devices, we need to determine a large number of parameters, for example, the composition, structure of layers, superlattice periods and so on. Combinatorial synthesis [1-4] is considered to be extremely efficient to de-termine such conditions and discover new materials without laborious and time-consuming processes. Mastumoto et al. developed [5] an apparatus for combinatorial laser molecular beam epitaxy, which is very useful to synthesize highly doped films and artificial superlattices which could not be obtained under thermal equilibrium conditions. This technique provides us systematic studies for growing a large number of epitaxial thin films with different compositions on a substrate under definite temperature and pressure conditions.