Application of x-ray phase plate to grazing incidence x-ray topography for the control of penetration depth

The penetration depth of x-rays into a crystal is one of the most important parameters in grazing incidence x-ray topography. In this paper, we introduce a novel method for controlling the penetration depth by modifying the polarization of incident x-rays with fixed sample geometry and x-ray wavelength. We employed an x-ray phase plate in transmission geometry for controlling the polarization, and obtained x-ray topographs of an ion-implanted 4H–SiC epitaxial wafer with σ- and π-polarized x-rays. By comparing the two topographs, it was verified that the penetration depth of σ-polarization is smaller than that of π-polarization.