Abstract
The investigation of the interfacial strusture of multi-layered thin film systems has been regarded as an important issue due to its high relevance to some particular properties of these systems.Owing to its complex structural geometry, obtaining theinformation on the interfacial characterization has proved to be a difficult task.In recent times, although numerous efforts have been dedicated to solve this problemthrough the development of practical experimental techniques, most of them still have some liminations.In this thesis, we address the concept that the structural characterization of the interfacecan be possibly achieved by utilizing the experimental method of x-ray multiple diffraction under resonance condition.By using the peculiar \emph{Zincblende} structure that makespossible the measurement of the inversion symmetry-related cases of three-wave diffraction, we havesuccessfully extracted the crystallographic phase of a thin film system for the first time.A series of x-ray three-beam diffraction $(200/\bar{3}\bar{1}1)/(200/1\bar{3}1)$were conducted under resonant conditions to measure the concentrations of the constituntelements of the interface between a (100) CdTe thin film and a (100) InSb substrate. Thethree-beam diffraction profiles versus the azimuthal angle of rotation around [200] reveala wide variety of change in phase shift due to resonance for photon energies in thevicinity of the Cd $L_{III}$ absorption edge. At differentmomentum transfers $q_{r}$ along $[200]$, sensitive to theinterfacial structure, the phase shift in the resonant state alsoprovides sufficient information about the distributions of the Cd andTe concentrations. This information, combined with a theoretical analysisof the crystallographic phase of the structural-factor triplets, allows usto determine the composition of Cd and Te as a function of depth normal to the interface.In addition, via the propagation of thesecondary $(\bar{3}\bar{1}1)$ and $(1\bar{3}1)$ reflected beamsalong the interface, possible interface structures parallel to thesurface can also be deduced.The hybridization of the x-ray three-beam intensity profiles has appeared distinctlyin the diffraction process, especally at some momentum transfers that have a highersensitivity to the interfacial structure. The anomalous disharmony of these diffracion profiles,influenced by the almost perfect lattice mismatch of 0.04\% in the interface,manifests the complexity of the interfacial structure. However, the severe hybridation of the intensityhas imposed a considerable limitation on the analysis of the structural compositionof the interface. Nevertheless, these datamight still validate that along the interfacial momentum transfer the variation of the resonance phase indifferent degree indeed come from the effect of the interfacial structure.