Laboratoire Charles Coulomb UMR 5221 CNRS/UM2 (L2C)

français


Accueil > La Recherche > Axes & Equipes > Physique Appliquée > Chalcogénures : Photovoltaïque et 2D

SEM and AFM microscopy

par Olivier BRIOT - publié le

Atomic Force Microscopy (SEM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) are essential tools used at L2C to assess the structural quality of solar cell samples.

Atomic Force Microscopy monitors the force exerted by a tip onto the sample surface while scanning it, and generate an image.
The main property of AFM is its anisotropy, where the vertical resolution is much higher than the lateral resolution.
Surface morphology may bring valuable information on the growth mechanisms, while SEM, which has an isotropic large magnification is well suited to measure the layers thickness in the micron and submicron range.

Our AFM setup is a SMENA NT-MDT Microscope, shown below.

The SEM setup we use is a TOPCON ABT-60. It is equipped with an additionnal acquisition system to improve resolution and reduce image noise by accumulating signal.


AIGLe

MathJax