Reliable image processing that can extract an atomically-resolved line shape of partial dislocations in semiconductors from plan-view high-resolution electron microscopic images

In this paper we have proposed a reliable methodology to extract partial dislocation lines in atomic resolution from high-resolution electron microscopic (HREM) images obtained with an electron beam incident normal to the slip plane. A previous scheme, which is based on imaging stacking faults (SF) which separate Shockley partial dislocations, is likely to be ambiguous in regard to the choice of the threshold in the image binarization process. Our scheme allows us to uniquely extract 30° partial dislocation lines at atomic resolution by tracing inflection points on the (1 1̄ 0) lattice fringes that cross the partials. The dislocation line thus deduced on the atomic scale coincides in good fidelity with the real core of the 30° partial. The fringe inflection or shift is stable against unintentional misorientation of the sample from exact on-axis geometry. The movement of extracted dislocations is rational, which provides more evidence as to the reliability of this methodology.