Marc Fouchier

Cathodoluminescence (CL) consists in the analysis of the light emitted in the UV-IR range by a material upon its excitation with an electron beam. This technique is particularly useful in compound semiconductors, such as GaN, SiC and InGaAsP, where it allows local probing of material properties.
In CL panchromatic images, defects such as threading dislocations (TDs), stacking faults and slide planes appear as dark features because of non-radiative recombinations. Variations in point defect concentration can also be revealed. In CL spectroscopy, the emission wavelength provides additional information such as the type of stacking fault in SiC, the composition of alloys such as AlGaN, layer thickness or strain level.
This work first reviews defect characterization in compound semiconductors by cathodoluminescence, then focuses on the characterization of defects in GaN HEMT devices.

Dr Marc FOUCHIER was born in Grenoble, France, in 1972. He received a PhD degree in Physical-Chemistry from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2000. He then worked at IMEC in Belgium where he developed diamond AFM probes for carrier mapping. In 2006, he joined the automated metrology division of Veeco Instruments. In 2009, he moved to the CNRS-LTM in Grenoble where he was involved in etch plasma characterization, line edge roughness metrology, and strain characterization using cathodoluminescence. Since 2019, he works as an application engineer in the analytical division of Attolight in Lausanne, Switzerland.