Neurohr Jens U, Wittig Anton, Hähl Hendrik, Nolle Friederike, Faidt Thomas, Grandthyll Samuel, Jacobs Karin, Klatt Michael A, Müller Frank
Experimental Physics and Center for Biophysics, Saarland University, Campus E2 9, 66123, Saarbrücken, Germany.
Department of Electrical Engineering, Trier University of Applied Science, Schneidershof, 54293, Trier, Germany.
Small Methods. 2025 Jul;9(7):e2401929. doi: 10.1002/smtd.202401929. Epub 2025 Mar 23.
For smooth surfaces, chemical composition can be readily analyzed using various spectroscopic techniques, a prominent example is X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), where the relative proportions of the elements are mainly determined by the intensity ratio of the element-specific photoelectrons. However, this analysis becomes more complex for nanorough surfaces like black silicon (b-Si) due to the geometry's steep slopes, which mimic local variations in emission angles. In this study, this effect is explicitly quantified through an integral geometric analysis using Minkowski tensors, correlating XPS chemical data with topographical information from Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). This approach yields reliable estimates of layer thicknesses for nanorough surfaces. For b-Si, it is found that the oxide layer is ≈50%-80% thicker than the native oxide layer on a standard Si wafer. This study underscores the significant impact of nanoscale geometries on chemical property analysis.
对于光滑表面，可以使用各种光谱技术轻松分析其化学成分，一个突出的例子是X射线光电子能谱（XPS），其中元素的相对比例主要由特定元素光电子的强度比决定。然而，对于像黑硅（b-Si）这样的纳米粗糙表面，由于其几何形状的陡坡会模拟发射角的局部变化，这种分析变得更加复杂。在本研究中，通过使用闵可夫斯基张量的积分几何分析明确量化了这种效应，将XPS化学数据与原子力显微镜（AFM）的地形信息相关联。这种方法能够可靠地估计纳米粗糙表面的层厚度。对于b-Si，发现其氧化层比标准硅片上的原生氧化层厚约50%-80%。这项研究强调了纳米尺度几何形状对化学性质分析的重大影响。
