Techniques/Equipment

Main techniques:

TOF-SIMS (Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry)

ToF-SIMS provides analysis of the elemental composition of solid surfaces. The surface is sputtered with a primary ion beam, the secondary ions emitted from the specimen are analyzed with a mass spectrometer. With a lateral resolution of 50 nm and a depth resolution of 1 nm SIMS is the most sensitive surface analysis tool with elemental detection limits in the range of ppm and ppb.

PES (Photoelectron Spectroscopy)

Core level electrons or valence electrons are excited by x-ray or UV radiation, respectively. Analysis of the kinetic energy and the emission angle of the photoexcited electrons gives information about the chemistry and band-structure of the surface.

NanoESCA (Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis)

The NanoESCA is a new system dedicated for photo emission electron microscopy (PEEM), ESCA and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) with high lateral resolution (40 nm in PEEM mode, 1 µm in imaging mode for XPS and approx. 10 µm for k-space mapping).

AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy)

A Bruker Dimension Icon AFM with Peak Force Tapping^TMis available for users from all departments. The system can be used for conductive AFM, magnetic force microscopy, Kelvin Probe force microscopy (KPFM), quantitative nanomechanical mapping and many more. Additionally a cell for fluid measurements is available. more

LEED (Low-Energy Electron Diffraction)

LEED is used to investigate surface structures of single-crystalline materials. It uses electrons with an energy in the range of 20 eV to 500 eV, which makes this technique highly surface sensitive. Qualitative analysis is used to determine the surface symmetry and possible surface reconstructions or the symmetry of adsorbate layers. Quantitative analysis for the precise determination of adsorbates' positions is also possible. more

These techniques are supplemented by:

Optical Profiler.
Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) in collaboration with University of Konstanz and 4-probe STM in collaboration with University of Chemnitz.
Synchrotron expertise: angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM), low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM), x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD), near edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS), high energy grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GXRD).