TY - CONF A1 - Radnik, Jörg A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Terborg, R. A1 - Kim, K.J. T1 - Elemental Composition and Thickness Determination of Thin Films by Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA) N2 - microscopy (AFM), or X-ray reflectometry. For the additional determination of thin film composition, techniques like X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) or mass spectrometry-based techniques can be used. An alternative non-destructive technique is electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). This method assumes a sample of homogenous (bulk) chemical composition, so that it cannot be usually applied to thin film samples. However, in combination with the thin film software StrataGEM, the thickness as well as the composition of such films on a substrate can be determined. This has been demonstrated for FeNi on Si and SiGe on Al2O3 film systems. For both systems five samples with different elemental composition and a reference were produced and characterised by Korean research institute KRISS using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), Rutherford backscattering (RBS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These samples were used for an international round robin test. In 2021, a new and open-source thin film evaluation programme called BadgerFilm has been released. It can also be used to determine thin film composition and thickness from intensity ratios of the unknown sample and standards (k-ratios). In this contribution, we re-evaluated the data acquired for the FeNi and SiGe systems using the BadgerFilm software package and compared the resulting composition and thickness with the results of the established StrataGEM software and other reference methods. With the current evaluation, the BadgerFilm software shows good agreement with the composition and thickness calculated by StrataGEM and as the reference values provided by the KRISS. T2 - ECASIA 2022 CY - Limerick, Ireland DA - 29.05.2022 KW - Thin films KW - Electron Probe Microanalysis KW - Interlaboratory Comparisons PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-54963 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan T1 - Advanced Characterization of the Surface Morphology and Chemistry within nano@BAM N2 - Both essential aspects of the surface of solid matter, its morphology and chemistry, are studied traditionally at BAM starting in the 60’s with different cyclical research focus areas, mostly related either to applicative research or method development. In the recent years, the focus has shifted almost exclusively to the nano-analytics of advanced materials such as complex nanoparticles, (ultra)thin films/coatings, nanocomposites, 2D materials, energy materials, etc. This is also the reason why BAM has established recently the new Competence Center nano@BAM (www.bam.de/Navigation/DE/Themen/Material/Nanotechnologie/sichere-nanomaterialien.html) with the five sub-fields nanoCharacterisation, nanoMaterial, nanoSafety, nanoData and nanoTechnology. The link to the BAM central guidelines to the safety in technology and chemistry is given by the development of reference products such as reference measurement procedures, reference (nano)materials, and newly reference data sets. Thus, an internationally well-networked group in surface analysis has been established @BAM, with regular contributions to integral analytical characterization with metrological and standardization background. Examples of newly developed methodical approaches will be given with an emphasis on correlative nano-analysis of morphology and chemistry of nanomaterials. Correlative imaging by STEM-in-SEM with high-resolution SEM and EDX, and further with AFM or the new technique TKD (Transmission Kikuchi Diffraction) will be explained on various examples of nanostructures, both as starting materials and embedded/functionalized nanoparticles in products. The unique analytical benefits of the Auger electron probe as a veritable nano-tool for surface chemistry will be highlighted. The panoply of advanced surface characterization methods @BAM is completed by discussing examples of hybrid analysis of the bulk of nanomaterials by X-ray Spectroscopy with the highest surface-sensitive methods X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). Particularly for the analysis of the surface chemistry of nanostructures, such as the completeness of the shells of core-shell nanoparticles or in-depth and lateral gradients of chemistry within mesoporous thin layers, the latter methods are inherent. Other special developments like approaches for the quantitative determination of the roughness of particle surface by electron microscopy or for the quantitative determination of the porosity of thin mesoporous layers by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) with SEM will be presented. T2 - Seminar of the Academic Centre for Materials and Nanotechnology CY - Online meeting DA - 12.05.2022 KW - Nanoparticles KW - Thin films KW - Nano Characterisation KW - Nanomaterials KW - Surface morphology KW - Surface chemistry PY - 2022 UR - https://www.agh.edu.pl/en/info/article/seminar-advanced-characterization-of-the-surface-morphology-and-chemistry-within-nanobam/ AN - OPUS4-54820 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bonse, Jörn A1 - Krüger, Jörg T1 - Structuring of thin films by ultrashort laser pulses JF - Applied physics A N2 - Modern life and global communication would not be possible without technologically tailored thin films; they are omnipresent in daily life applications. In most cases, the films are deposited entirely at the carrying substrates in a specific processing step of the device or sample. In some cases, however, removal or modification must be performed locally, i.e., site-controlled and material selective through an additional laser processing step. For that ultrashort laser pulses with durations in the femtosecond and picosecond range can provide unique advantages and capabilities in industrially scalable schemes. This article reviews the current state of the research and corresponding industrial transfer related to the structuring of thin films by ultrashort pulsed lasers. It focuses on the pertinent historic developments, reveals the relevant physical and chemical effects, explores the ultimate limits, and discusses selected industrial and scientific applications. KW - Thin films KW - Laser processing KW - Ultrashort lasers KW - Laser damage KW - Femtosecond laser ablation PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-565732 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-022-06229-x SN - 0947-8396 SN - 1432-0630 VL - 129 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 38 PB - Springer CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-56573 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan T1 - Liaison report from VAMAS with ISO/TC 202 Microbeam Analysis N2 - The progress in the activities on Microbeam Analysis under VAMAS/TWA 37 is reviewed. Particularly the liaison with the new projects within the ISO technical committee TC 202 is presented and discussed with respect to the possibility of identifying and launching related VAMAS projects/inter-laboratory comparisons. The recently started project FIB sample processing for TEM is presented. Next projects in the pipeline involving EBSD and TKD are shortly announced. The need of more promotion for the engagement of more experts from industry and academia at national, European and international level is highlighted. Also, the competition with the other technical working areas (on 'nano' or materials-related) is critically discussed. T2 - 29th Annual Meeting of ISO/TC 202 Microbeam Analysis CY - Online meeting DA - 28.11.2022 KW - VAMAS KW - ISO/TC 202 KW - Microbeam Analysis KW - EBSD KW - Electron microscopy KW - Thin films PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-56424 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gawek, Marcel A1 - Madkour, Sherif A1 - Szymoniak, Paulina A1 - Radnik, Jörg A1 - Schönhals, Andreas T1 - Energy Dependent XPS Measurements on Thin Films of a Poly(vinyl methyl ether)/Polystyrene Blend in Dependence on Film Thickness – Concentration Profile on a Nanometer Resolution to Understand the Behavior of Nanofilms JF - Soft Matter N2 - The composition of the surface layer in dependence from the distance of the polymer/air interface in thin films with thicknesses below 100 nm of miscible polymer blends in a spatial region of a few nanometers is not investigated completely. Here, thin films of the blend poly vinyl methyl ether) (PVME)/polystyrene (PS) with a composition of 25/75 wt% are investigated by Energy Resolved X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (ER-XPS) at a synchrotron storage ring using excitation energies lower than 1 keV. By changing the energy of the photons the information depth is varied in the range from ca. 1 nm to 10 nm. Therefore, the PVME concentration could be estimated in dependence from the distance of the polymer/air interface for film thicknesses below 100 nm. Firstly, as expected for increasing information depth the PVME concentration decreases. Secondly, it was found that the PVME concentration at the surface has a complicated dependence on the film thickness. It increases with decreasing film thickness until 30 nm where a maximum is reached. For smaller film thicknesses the PVME concentration decreases. A simplified layer model is used to calculate the effective PVME concentration in the different spatial regions of the surface layer. KW - Energy dependent XPS KW - Soft X-ray KW - Thin films PY - 2021 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d1sm00656h VL - 17 IS - 29 SP - 6985 EP - 6994 PB - The Royal Chemical Society AN - OPUS4-53039 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Terborg, R. A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Kim, K. J. T1 - Determination of Thin Film Thickness and Composition using Energy Dispersive EPMA N2 - Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA) provides a non-destructive approach in the dedicated thin film analysis mode with the commercial StrataGem software. Recently, the open-source programme BadgerFilm by Moy and Fournelle became available. Similarly to StrataGem, it is based on the algorithm of Pouchou and Pichoir and needs intensity ratios of the unknown sample and standards (k-values). We have evaluated the k-values measured for the FeNi and SiGe film systems using the BadgerFilm software package and compared the thickness and composition with the results obtained with the established StrataGem software and other reference methods. The thicknesses of the SiGe films obtained by the BadgerFilm software agree within 20% with the StrataGem and TEM results; the elemental compositions BadgerFilm-StrataGEM agree within 2% with one exception (9%). T2 - Microscopy and Microanalysis 2022 CY - Portland, OR, USA DA - 31.07.2022 KW - Thin films KW - Thickness KW - Elemental composition KW - FeNi KW - SiGe KW - BadgerFilm KW - Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA) PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-55522 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Omar, Hassan A1 - Szymoniak, Paulina A1 - Hertwig, Andreas A1 - Schönhals, Andreas T1 - Invesitgation of Thin Film Interactions with Inorganic Surfaces N2 - Thin polymer films are of vital importance due to their low production costs and wide range of applications in sensors, electronics, and coatings. Their geometry is ideal for the study of confinement effects, specifically one-dimensional confinement, on the thermodynamic properties and segmental dynamics of polymers. For this investigation, films of PC are prepared on both glass and silica substrates to measure the dielectric and calorimetric behavior as a function of film thickness. The methodology consists of broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS), ellipsometry, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Using ellipsometry, the glass transition shows an increase with decreasing film thickness. Compared to a previous investigation of PC where dilatometry was used, an increase in PC was seen, but now only at thicknesses below 20 nm. Therefore, the critical thickness of PC, where the bulk-like layer no longer percolates through the film, is dependent on the method probing the glass transition. The dielectric behavior shows a deviation from bulk behavior with decreasing film thickness, although still showing a Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann (VFT) temperature dependence for all films. The influence of the adsorbed layer on the molecular mobility was also addressed. T2 - Deutschen Physikalische Gesellschaft (DPG) Tagung CY - Regensburg, Germany DA - 04.09.2022 KW - Thin films KW - Adsorbed Layer KW - Broadband dielectric spectroscopy PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-55706 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmidt-Grund, R. A1 - Sturm, C. A1 - Hertwig, Andreas T1 - Ellipsometry and polarimetry - Classical measurement techniques with always new developments, concepts, and applications JF - Advanced optical technologies N2 - Ellipsometry is a matured experimental method, whose roots reach back into the early phase of modern optics itself. It is often attributed to be invented by Paul Drude in the last decade of the 19th century, but similar techniques had already been applied for years before Drude started his work. With this Special Issue about ellipsometry and related techniques, we hope to bring more attention to this method and advance and propagate it to be used by a broader community. We have collected a good mixture of articles: some texts are more in the line of users’ tutorial and best practice guides; others are intended to show recent developments of the method. With this collection, we also hope to show the generally rapidly expanding possibilities of ellipsometry and polarimetry to draw attention of new users and previously unrelated communities to this valuable tool. KW - Ellipsometry KW - Polarimetry KW - Surfaces KW - Thin films KW - Optical analysis PY - 2022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1515/aot-2022-0025 SN - 2192-8584 SN - 2192-8576 VL - 11 IS - 3-4 (Topical issue: Ellipsometry) SP - 57 EP - 58 PB - De Gruyter CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-55467 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR ED - Schmidt-Grund, R. ED - Sturm, C. ED - Hertwig, Andreas T1 - Topical issue: Ellipsometry T2 - Advanced optical technologies N2 - Ellipsometry is a matured experimental method, whose roots reach back into the early phase of modern optics itself. It is often attributed to be invented by Paul Drude in the last decade of the 19th century, but similar techniques had already been applied for years before Drude started his work. With this Special Issue about ellipsometry and related techniques, we hope to bring more attention to this method and advance and propagate it to be used by a broader community. KW - Spectroscopy KW - Ellipsometry KW - Surfaces KW - Thin films KW - Advanced optics KW - Optical measurement technology PY - 2022 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/aot/11/3-4/html#contents SN - 2192-8584 SN - 2192-8576 VL - 11 IS - 3-4 SP - 47 EP - 147 PB - De Gruyter CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-55468 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Terborg, R. A1 - Kim, K. J. A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan T1 - Determination of Thin Film Thickness and Composition using Energy Dispersive EPMA JF - Microscopy and Microanalysis N2 - The thickness of thin films can be measured by various methods, e.g., profilometry, ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy (AFM), or X-ray reflectometry. For the additional determination of thin film composition, techniques like X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) or mass spectrometry-based techniques can be used. An alternative non-destructive technique is electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). This method assumes a sample of homogenous (bulk) chemical composition, so that it cannot be usually applied to thin film samples. However, in combination with the thin film software StrataGEM, the thickness as well as the composition of such films on a substrate can be determined. This has been demonstrated for FeNi on Si and SiGe on Al2O3 film systems. For both systems five samples with different elemental composition and a reference were produced and characterised by Korean research institute KRISS using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), Rutherford backscattering (RBS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These samples were used for an international round robin test. In 2021, a new and open-source thin film evaluation programme called BadgerFilm has been released. It can also be used to determine thin film composition and thickness from intensity ratios of the unknown sample and standards (k-ratios). In this contribution, we re-evaluated the data acquired for the FeNi and SiGe systems using the BadgerFilm software package and compared the resulting composition and thickness with the results of the established StrataGEM software and other reference methods. With the current evaluation, the BadgerFilm software shows good agreement with the composition and thickness calculated by StrataGEM and as the reference values provided by the KRISS. KW - Thin films KW - Elemental composition KW - Film thickness KW - EPMA (Electron Probe Microanalysis) PY - 2022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1017/S143192762200318X VL - 28 IS - Suppl. 1 SP - 672 EP - 673 PB - Cambridge University Press AN - OPUS4-55437 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Sachse, René A1 - Hertwig, Andreas A1 - Kraehnert, R. T1 - Analysis of elemental composition and porosity of mesoporous IrOx-TiOx thin films by SEM/EDS N2 - Porous materials play an important role in several fields of technology, especially for energy applications like photovoltaics, electrolysis or batteries. The activity of porous films is affected by properties like porosity, film thickness, chemical composition of the material, as well as the crystallinity of the framework. The complex morphology of such porous films constitutes a challenge even for modern analytical techniques and requires new approaches employing the combination/complementation of data of different analytical methods. In this contribution, we characterise thin mesoporous iridium-titanium mixed oxide film properties by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) at an SEM. Mesoporous iridium oxide - titanium oxide (IrOx-TiOx) films were prepared via dip-coating of a solution containing a triblock-copolymer as structure-directing agent, an iridium precursor as well as a titanium precursor in ethanol. IrOx-TiOx films were synthesized with different amounts of iridium and calcined in air. The SEM micrographs reveal for all films the achievement of a well-ordered mesoporous structure and homogeneous films with thicknesses between 67 nm and 152 nm. For the determination of film elemental composition and porosity, EPMA can be used as part of a combined SEM/EDS/STRATAGem analysis. Elemental compositions and mass depositions (in μg cm-2) of IrOx-TiOx films were calculated with the thin film analysis Software STRATAGem via k-values measured with SEM/EDS. Pure bulk Ir, TiO2 and Si were measured as references. The average density of the films was obtained from the mass Deposition and the film thickness as measured by cross-section SEM. The porosity was then extracted from the measured average film density divided by a theoretical bulk density. The latter is calculated from the weight fractions of IrOx and TiOx as determined with STRATAGem and the bulk mass densities of IrO2 and TiO2 (rutil) from literature. The fitting results of the k-values from the STRATAGem software, which are in fair agreement with the measured k-values. The application of the SEM/EDS/STRATAGem approach for accurate porosity determination on pure mesoporous TiOx films and pure porous IrOx films has been recently demonstrated. The porosities of pure IrOx, TiOx and mixed IrOx-TiOx films in this study have been determined. The contribution will assess in detail the advantages and limitations of the combined SEM/EDS/STRATAGem analysis for the morphology and porosity of thin metal oxide films. Moreover, the comparison with other measurement techniques and the combination of datasets from multiple measurements will be discussed. T2 - EMAS 2019 - 16th European Workshop on MODERN DEVELOPMENTS AND APPLICATIONS IN MICROBEAM ANALYSIS CY - Trondheim, Norway DA - 19.05.2019 KW - Thin films KW - Porous layers KW - Electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) KW - Porosity PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-48107 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Terborg, R. A1 - Boehm, S. A1 - Kim, K. J. T1 - Analysis of elemental composition of Fe1-xNix and Si1-xGex alloy thin films by electron probe microanalysis and micro-focus X-ray fluorescence JF - Surface and Interface Analysis N2 - The present study reports on results of analysis of the elemental composition of thin films by electron probe microanalysis with energy dispersive (ED-EPMA) X-ray spectrometry in conjunction with the dedicated thin-film analysis software package Stratagem and by X-ray fluorescence in its version with a micro-focus X-ray fluorescence (μ-XRF) source attached to a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Two thin-film systems have been analyzed: Fe1-xNix on silicon wafer and Si1-xGex on Al2O3 substrate, in both cases the layers being grown to a thickness of about 200 nm by ion beam sputter deposition. Samples of five different atomic fractions have been produced and analyzed for each thin-film system. Moreover, reference samples with certified elemental composition and thickness have been also available. This study is part of an interlaboratory comparison organized in the frame of standardization technical committee ISO/TC 201 “Surface chemical analysis.” Two laboratories have been analyzed by ED-EPMA (one laboratory standardless and one laboratory using both standardless and with standards variants) and one laboratory by μ-XRF (standardless and with standards). All the elemental compositions obtained with different methods are in very good agreement for the complete two sets of five samples each. KW - Thin films KW - Elemental composition KW - FeNi KW - SiGe KW - Electron probe microanalysis KW - X-ray Fluorescence PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-509262 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/sia.6834 SN - 0142-2421 VL - 52 IS - 12 SP - 929 EP - 932 PB - John Wiley & Sons Ltd AN - OPUS4-50926 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Duwe, M. A1 - Quast, J.-H. A1 - Schneider, S. A1 - Fischer, Daniel A1 - Beck, Uwe T1 - Thin-film metrology of tilted and curved surfaces by imaging Mueller-matrix ellipsometry JF - Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B N2 - For the vast majority of ellipsometric measurements, the application of planar substrates is mandatory and requires a proper sample alignment prior to the measurement. Here, the authors present a generalized approach of how to extract the isotropic ellipsometric sample parameters from an imaging Mueller-matrix measurement even if the sample is significantly misaligned. They validate the method by layer-thickness calculations based on imaging Mueller-matrix measurements of flat crystalline silicon samples that were misaligned on purpose. Furthermore, they also exploit this method’s capabilities to perform spatially resolved layer-thickness measurements of a single-layer indium-tin-oxide coating on a fused-silica microlens without the need of realignment or repositioning of the sample during the measurement. T2 - 8th International conference on spectroscopic ellipsometry (ICSE-8) CY - Barcelona, Spain DA - 26.05.2019 KW - Metrology KW - Thin films KW - Polarization spectroscopy KW - Spectroskopic Imaging KW - Mueller-Matrix imaging ellipsometry PY - 2019 DO - https://doi.org/10.1116/1.5122757 SN - 2166-2746 SN - 2327-9877 VL - 37 IS - 6 SP - 062908 PB - AIP CY - New York, NY AN - OPUS4-50209 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Terborg, R. A1 - Boehm, S. A1 - Kim, K. J. T1 - Measurement of Elemental Composition of and SiGe Alloy Thin Films by EPMA and µ-XRF N2 - The present study reports on measurements on thin Fe-Ni films on silicon and first-time results of analysis on Si-Ge thin films deposited on a non-conductive aluminium oxide Substrate by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). Standard-based and standardless EPMA (with EDS) results were used in combination with the thin film analysis software Stratagem for the quantification. Further, X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) can be used for the determination of elemental composition and thickness of such films as well. In this case, XRF with a μ-focus X-ray source (μ-XRF) attached to a SEM was applied. For quantification, a fundamental parameter (FP) approach has been used to calculate standard-based and standardless results. Both thin film systems have been chosen as samples of an international round robin test (RRT) organised in the frame of standardisation technical committee ISO/TC 201 ‘Surface chemical analysis’, under the lead of KRISS. The main objective of the RRT is to compare the results of atomic fractions of Fe1-xNix and Si1-xGex alloy films obtained by different surface Analysis techniques, such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) applied in the depth-profiling operation mode. Five samples of different atomic fractions of each thin film system, i.e., Fe1-xNix and Si1-xGex, have been grown by ion beam sputter deposition on silicon and Al2O3 wafers, respectively. Reference FeNi and SiGe films with well-known elemental composition and thickness have been also supplied for standard-based analysis. An excellent agreement has been obtained between the atomic fractions determined by EPMA and µ-XRF with the KRISS certified values. T2 - European Conference on Applications of Surface and Interface Analysis ECASIA 2019 CY - Dresden, Germany DA - 15.09.2019 KW - Thin films KW - EPMA KW - XRF KW - FeNi KW - SiGe PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-49278 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Terborg, R. A1 - Boehm, S. A1 - Kim, K. J. T1 - Analysis of elemental composition of Fe1-xNix and Si1-xGex alloy thin films by EPMA and µ-XRF N2 - The present study reports on measurements on thin Fe-Ni films on silicon and first-time results of analysis on Si-Ge thin films deposited on a non-conductive aluminium oxide Substrate by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). Standard-based and standardless EPMA (with EDS) results were used in combination with the thin film analysis software Stratagem for the quantification. Further, X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) can be used for the determination of elemental composition and thickness of such films as well. In this case, XRF with a μ-focus X-ray source (μ-XRF) attached to a SEM was applied. For quantification, a fundamental parameter (FP) approach has been used to calculate standard-based and standardless results. Both thin film systems have been chosen as samples of an international round robin test (RRT) organised in the frame of standardisation technical committee ISO/TC 201 ‘Surface chemical analysis’, under the lead of KRISS. The main objective of the RRT is to compare the results of atomic fractions of Fe1-xNix and Si1-xGex alloy films obtained by different surface Analysis techniques, such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) applied in the depth-profiling operation mode. Five samples of different atomic fractions of each thin film system, i.e., Fe1-xNix and Si1-xGex, have been grown by ion beam sputter deposition on silicon and Al2O3 wafers, respectively. Reference FeNi and SiGe films with well-known elemental composition and thickness have been also supplied for standard-based analysis. An excellent agreement has been obtained between the atomic fractions determined by EPMA and µ-XRF with the KRISS certified values. T2 - Microscopy & Microanalysis 2019 CY - Portland, OR, USA DA - 03.08.2019 KW - Thin films KW - EPMA KW - µ-XRF KW - Elemental composition KW - Atomic fraction KW - Fe-Ni KW - Si-Ge PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-48709 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Sachse, René A1 - Kotil, L. A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Bernsmeier, Denis A1 - Kraehnert, R. A1 - Hertwig, Andreas T1 - Spectroscopic ellipsometric analysis of elemental composition and porosity of mesoporous iridium-titanium mixed oxide thin films for electrocatalytic splitting of water N2 - Porous materials play an important role in several fields of technology, especially for energy applications like photovoltaics, electrolysis or batteries. The activity of porous films is affected by properties like porosity, film thickness, chemical composition of the material as well as the crystallinity of the framework. The complex morphology of such porous films constitutes a challenge for modern analytical techniques and requires approaches employing the combination/complementation of data of different analytical methods. In this contribution we characterize thin mesoporous iridium-titanium mixed oxide film properties by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). Mesoporous iridium oxide - titanium oxide (IrOx-TiOx) films were prepared via dip-coating of a solution containing a triblock-copolymer as structure-directing agent, an iridium precursor as well as a titanium precursor in ethanol. Deposited films with different amounts of iridium (0 wt%Ir to 100 wt%Ir) were synthesized and calcined in air. The thin films were analyzed with SE using the Bruggeman effective medium approximation (BEMA) for modelling. The results were compared with electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) as part of a combined SEM/EDS/STRATAGem Analysis. T2 - 8th International conference on spectroscopic ellipsometry (ICSE-8) CY - Barcelona, Spain DA - 26.05.2019 KW - Mesoporous iridium-titanium mixed oxides KW - Thin films KW - Spectroscopic ellipsometry KW - Oxygen evolution reaction KW - EPMA KW - Ellipsometric porosimetry PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-48387 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fahmy, Alaa A1 - El Sabbagh, M. A1 - Bedair, M. A1 - Gangan, A. A1 - El-Sabbah, M. A1 - El-Bahy, S. A1 - Friedrich, J. T1 - One-step plasma deposited thin SiOxCy films for corrosion resistance of low carbon steel JF - Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology N2 - Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) was used as a chemical precursor to deposit ultra-thin SiO x C y plasma polymer films onto mild steel surfaces for preventing the corrosion process. The structure–property relationships of the coatings were evaluated by X-ray Photo Spectroscopy (XPS), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) completed with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The SEM micrographs confirmed a pinhole-free surface morphology of the low-pressure deposited plasma polymer films. The TEOS molecules become fragmented in the plasma by numerous collisions with energy-rich electrons and heavier particles. Recombination of fragments and condensation onto the steel substrate is responsible for the formation of organic SiO containing plasma polymer layers. Such thin layers consist of predominantly SiO x structures. Their properties are determined largely by the gap distance between the two samples used as electrodes in the plasma. The efficiency of the corrosion-protecting coating was compared with uncoated samples. The corrosion protection was determined by exposure of samples to 3.5% NaCl aqueous solutions. For this purpose, polarization and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) were used to monitor the corrosion. The optimal gap distance between the electrodes was determined for corrosion protection. The best protective efficiency reached more than 97% of the total protection as measured at room temperature. KW - Thin films KW - Corrosion resistance KW - Mild steel KW - Plasma treatments KW - Tetraethyl orthosilicate PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/01694243.2020.1856539 VL - 35 IS - 16 SP - 1734 EP - 1751 PB - Taylor & Francis AN - OPUS4-52303 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rades, Steffi A1 - Borghetti, P. A1 - Ortel, Erik A1 - Wirth, Thomas A1 - Blanco, M. A1 - Gómez, E. A1 - Martinez, A. A1 - Jupille, J. A1 - Martra, G. A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan T1 - Control of functionalization of supports for subsequent assembly of titania nanoparticle films JF - Surface and Interface Analysis N2 - For self‐assembling of TiO2 nanoparticles in multiple layers by layer‐by‐layer deposition to be applied to TiO2 thin films with defined and homogeneous thickness for large‐scale applications, the proper functionalization of substrate surface is a prerequisite to guarantee sufficient adhesion. The substrates selected and tested in the present paper were conductive, fluorine‐doped tin oxide (FTO) glass, nonconductive silica glass, and titanium alloy. The current study focusses on the analytical control of the stepwise functionalization of the substrates with 3‐aminopropyltriethoxysilane and glutaraldehyde (GA) for both the FTO glass and silica glass and with 3‐aminepropyl phosphonic acid and GA for Ti alloy. The analyses have been conducted by means of surface sensitive methods, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, and time‐of‐flight secondary ions mass spectrometry. Chemical composition of surface of functionalized substrates shows differences in the degree and type of modification in dependence on substrate. It could be demonstrated that the best functionalized substrates were the conductive FTO glasses. The analysis of the functionalized Ti substrates has revealed that the surface coverage with 3‐aminepropyl phosphonic acid and GA molecules is an inhomogeneous one, and further optimization of the two‐step functionalization on the Ti alloy substrate is necessary. KW - Nanoparticles KW - Surface functionalization KW - TiO2 KW - SEM/EDX KW - Auger Electron Spectroscopy KW - ToF-SIMS KW - Thin films PY - 2018 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/sia.6398 SN - 0142-2421 SN - 1096-9918 VL - 50 IS - 11 SP - 1200 EP - 1206 PB - John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. AN - OPUS4-46406 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Szymoniak, Paulina T1 - Glass transition and glassy dynamics of thin polymer films and polymer nanocomposites N2 - Polymers at interfaces play a major role in a broad variety of applications ranging from engineering purposes (for instance polymer based nanocomposites) to high tech implications (for instance light emitting diodes). Here the glass transition and glassy dynamics is considered for epoxy-based nanocomposite with Layered Double Hydroxide nanofiller and for thin films of a misicble polymer blend of PVME/PS with thicknesses down to 7 nm. The materials are investigated by spectroscopic techniques (broadband and specific heat spectroscopy), as well as by fast scanning calorimetry and small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering. T2 - Seminarvortrag Columbia University CY - New York, USA DA - 11.03.2019 KW - Nanocomposites KW - Rigid amorphous fraction KW - Thin films KW - Interfaces PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-47565 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Omar, Hassan A1 - Szymoniak, Paulina A1 - Hertwig, Andreas A1 - Schönhals, Andreas T1 - Growth Kinetics and Molecular Mobility of the Adsorbed Layer of Poly(bisphenol-A Carbonate) (PBAC), Polysulfone (PSU), and Poly (2-Vinyl Pyridine) (P2VP) N2 - Interactions between a polymer and a substrate interface play a vital role in understanding the improvement in thin film material properties as well as serving as a model for nanocomposites. For any non-repulsive polymer-substrate interactions, polymer segments form an irreversibly adsorbed layer and show a slowdown in the glassy dynamics and thus an increase in the thermal glass transition temperature compared to the bulk-like values. The growth kinetics of the adsorbed layer showed a deviation for both poly (bisphenol-A carbonate) (PBAC) and polysulfone (PSU), two bulky polymers containing a functional group (phenyl ring) in the backbone, compared to conventional polymers previously studied like poly-2-vinyl pyridine (P2VP). This deviation was attributed to the bulkiness of the phenyl rings. . Further investigations into the influence of the adsorbed layer on glassy dynamics were conducted. The molecular mobility and glass transition for thin films of PBAC and PSU were compared to bulk samples of each polymer. Broadband dielectric spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and ellipsometry were primarily used and additionally supported by sum frequency generation spectroscopy. T2 - Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (DPG) Tagung CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 17.03.2024 KW - Thin films KW - Adsorbed Layer KW - Atomic Force Microscopy KW - Ellipsometry KW - Dielectric Spectroscopy PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-59821 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -