A method and device are presented for measuring the electrical properties
of a specimen. The specimen is excited with high energy radiation to
cause emission of internal charged particles from the specimen.
Electrical power is supplied to a circuit, that is formed by the specimen
and any added component connected to a back contact of the specimen. The
electric power supply includes at least one of the following: irradiating
the circuit with low energy charged particles; subjecting the circuit to
an external field of the kind affecting the flux of emitted internal
charged particles, and supplying a bias voltage to the back contact of
the specimen. During the power supply to the specimen, at least one of
the following is carried out: an electric current through the specimen is
measured, and the emitted charged particles are analyzed versus their
energy (using a contactless voltmeter) which provides local potential
values at chemical entities of the specimen. This technique enables
determination of rich, chemically resolved, electrical properties of a
specimen, such as I V characteristic, and/or evaluation of a work
function characteristic, and/or characterization of electric leakage or
breakdown conditions of the sample, and/or characterization of
accumulation of charge within at least one region of the sample, and/or
chemically resolved photovoltaic characteristics (photovoltage and/or
photocurrent) of the sample.