Lattice Electron Microscopy and Image Processing of Laser-Annealed GaAs Structures

The efficiency of the Low-Power Pulsed-Laser Annealing (LPPLA) as a treatment to restore the ion implantation induced crystal disorder is well-known, but it is still open the question regarding the way in which is possible to model the LPPLA dynamic effects. At this purpose we believe that a deeper knowledge about the modification of the ion-induced extended defects (dislocations, stacking faults, clusters), as a consequence of the LPPLA treatment, is relevant. In our opinion, a technique suitable to gain this information could be the lattice image digital processing. In this paper we reported the experimental results concerning the use of this technique applied to some HRTEM images of low-dose implanted GaAs samples. In particular, the appearance of different types of extended defects in the implanted material and their annealing with LPPLA have been put in evidence.