rounded corner
Mole Antonelliana
Home » Ricerca Tecnologica e Interdisciplinare

DANTE

Attività

The DANTE project (Developments in Analytical Nuclear TEchniques) is aimed to the development of nuclear techniques for material analysis.

The  project, coordinated by Prof. P.A. Mandò,, involves the INFN sections of Firenze, Milano-Politecnico (resp. C. Guazzoni),  Torino (E. Vittone), and the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud  (resp. G. Pappalardo),

The role of the INFN-section of Torino is to develep at the LABEC laboratory in Florence some innovative  IBA (Ion Beam Analysis)  techniques for the characterisation of advanced materials or art objects.

In particular, the Torino unit is involved in the development of the  ionoluminescenza (IL) e Ion Beam Induced Charge Collection – IBIC) techniques, already developed at the microbeam facility of the Legnaro National Laboratory (LNL).

The motivation of such a programme lies:
  1. in the opportunity to develop the ionoluminescence technique (i.e. the spectroscopic measurement of the visible light emitted by MeV ion excitation) to characterise advanced semiconductor and insulator materials and art objects. In particular, this latter topic agrees with the main mission of LABEC (Laboratory of nuclear technique for cultural heritage). Infact, IL improves the analytical capability of LABEC providing complementary chemical and structural information to those usually obtained by other traditional ion beam analysis (IBA) techniques, such as RBS, PIXE or PIGE.
     
  2. in the opportunity to develop the IBIC technique from an extracted beam to the functional characterisation of semiconductor devices. The IBIC technique, consists in the measurement of the charge induced by the motion of free carrier generated by single MeV ions in a semiconductor. The synchronous measurement of the IBIC pulse with the focused ion beam scan, allows charge collection efficiency to be mapped with a resolution of the order of few micrometer. The development of such a technique at the microbeam line of LABEC is aimed to evaluate the advantages due to the use of an extracted focused MeV ion beam to characterise large semiconductor devices (i.e. solar cell panels), non vacuum compatibles materials (e.g. semiconductor polymers or  Dye Sensitive Solar Cells) or to monito the electronic features of devices with a high environmental reactivity.

 

Attività di ricerca: 

IONOLUMINESCENCE

The new ionoluminescence (IL) apparatus has been recently installed at the microbeam facility of the 3 MV Tandetron accelerator of the INFN LABEC Laboratory in Florence and synergetically integrated into the existing set-up for Ion Beam Analysis.

Main characteristics of the IL apparatus:

Acquisition of the luminescence spectrum by means of a CCD spectrometer coupled through a bifurcated optical fiber to a collimating lens located at 10 cm from the sample and at  120° with respect to the beam direction.

Spectral range:: 200-900 nm; spectral resolution: 2 nm.

Panchromatic imaging was obtained facing directly the other leg of the Y shape optical fibre to a photomultiplier.  Monochromatic IL imaging was obtained by selecting the wavelength through a linear variable filter (spectral resolution FWHM ~20 nm) interposed between the optical fibre end and the photocathode.

Effective scan area for IL imaging: 200 x 400 μm2.

IL activity

  • PIXE-IL analysis of art objects
    Raw lapis lazuli samples of different known origins and the precious lapis lazuli artworks of the Collezione Medicea of the Mineralogy and Lithology section of the Museum of Natural History, University of Florence; the aim of this study is to characterise their composition and provenience.

  • IL analysis of advanced semiconductor materials.
    IL spectra from a N doped diamond sample to be compared with cathodoluminescence spectra in order to evaluate the IL sensitivities and the effect of ion damage. 

 

Poster presentations

Pubblications

  • E. Colombo, S. Calusi, R. Cossio, L. Giuntini, A. Lo Giudice, P. A. Mandò, C. Manfredotti, M. Massi, F.A. Mirto, E. Vittone,Recent developments of ion beam induced luminescence at the external scanning microbeam facility of the LABEC Laboratory in Florence,to be published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B.
  • S. Calusi, E. Colombo, L. Giuntini, A. Lo Giudice, P.A. Mandò, C. Manfredotti, M. Massi, G. Pratesi, E. Vittone, The new ionoluminescence apparatus at the LABEC external microbeam facility", to be published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B.

Ion Beam Induced Charge Collection

The IBIC characterisation is mainly carried out at  LABEC and at Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro and at the Ruder Boskovic Institute of Zagreb (HR).

First experiments of IBIC characterisation of semiconductor devices from a focussed extracted beam have been carried out at LABEC laboratoy to evaluate the charge collection efficiency maps of 4H-SiC diode arrays and of CdTe/CdS thin film solar cells.

An example of such an activity is shown in the following figures. An array of 4 Schottky 4H-SiC diodes has been analysed by IBIC using a scanning a focused 3 MeV proton beam (spot size about 10 μm) extracted in air or in He atmosphere.

 

The IBIC map highlight the presence of a linear defect underneath the electrodes and hence not visible at an optical inspection.

 The characterisation activity carried out at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro and at the Ruder Boskovic Institute of Zagreb (HR) is illustrated in the papers in the  group web site

 

Maggiori Informazioni
Contatti
Nome del responsabile: 

Ettore Vittone

vittone@to.infn.it