Optical contrast and refractive index of natural van der Waals heterostructure nanosheets of franckeite

Abstract

We study mechanically exfoliated nanosheets of franckeite by quantitative optical microscopy. The analysis of transmission-mode and epi-illumination-mode optical microscopy images provides a rapid method to estimate the thickness of the exfoliated flakes at first glance. A quantitative analysis of the optical contrast spectra by means of micro-reflectance allows one to determine the refractive index of franckeite over a broad range of the visible spectrum through a fit of the acquired spectra to a model based on the Fresnel law.

Keywords

• complex refractive index
• franckeite
• optical contrast
• optical identification
• van der Waals heterostructure