Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 54: Nanostructured surfaces and thin films
O 54.1: Talk
Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 10:30–10:45, HSZ/0201
Advanced Characterization of Black Silicon via AFM and XPS: Geometric and Chemical Insights for better characterization of PV materials — •Jens Neurohr1, Hendrik Hähl1, Karin Jacobs1, Michael Klatt2, and Frank Müller1 — 1Experimental Physics and Center for Biophysics, Saarland University, Campus E2 9, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany — 2German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute for Material Physics in Space, 51170 Köln, Germany
Understanding the link between surface geometry and chemical properties is crucial for photovoltaic (PV) applications, especially in nanostructured materials like black silicon (b-Si). RMS roughness is commonly used to describe nanorough surfaces, but it cannot capture their complexity or predict behaviors such as bacterial adhesion [1] or chemical composition.
On steep, irregular surfaces, chemical analysis techniques such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) becomes challenging. To overcome this, we use Minkowski functionals and tensors [2,3] to relate XPS data to detailed Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) topography.
Our results show that nanoscale geometry strongly influences chemical surface analysis and that geometric descriptors provide a powerful framework for studying complex surfaces.
[1] C. Spengler et al., Nanoscale, 11 (2019) 19713.
[2] R. Schneider, W. Weil, Springer (2008).
[3] G. E. Schröder-Turk et al., Advanced Materials, 23 (2011) 2535.
Keywords: atomic force microscopy (AFM); black silicon; Minkowski analysis; nano- roughness; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)