Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
By a combination of high resolution imaging (HREM) and grazing incidence X-ray scattering (GIXS), periodic interfaces with large unit cell can be solved at an atomic scale. The advantage of recording information in the real space is that phases are directly encoded in the image. On the other hand the X-ray diffraction gives quantitative information at a resolution level better than with HREM. This combined analysis is illustrated on GaAs (001)-CdTe (111) and on GaAs(001)-GaSb(001) interfaces. In both cases the structure at the interface is obtained and some mechanisms for the strain relaxation at heterostructures with large misfit are proposed.