Advanced semiconductor characterization with aberration corrected electron microscopes

Spherical aberration (Cs) correctors were demonstrated in the last years of the twentieth century and became commercially available a few years later. In Grenoble, we received our first probe corrector on a TEM/STEM machine in 2006. Cs-correctors have allowed us to improve the spatial resolution and the contrast of high resolution images both in TEM and STEM. The aim of the article is not to give a detailed description of Cs-correctors or a thorough analysis of their pros and cons but to illustrate what the benefits of the Cs-correctors have been in four areas: (i) atomic structure determination, (ii) polarity measurement, (iii) strain determination and (iv) interface analysis. Emphasis is put on the probe corrector although some comments on image correctors are given as well.