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Improved conductive atomic force microscopy measurements on organic photovoltaic materials via mitigation of contact area uncertainty
Author(s) -
Nikiforov Maxim P.,
Darling Seth B.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
progress in photovoltaics: research and applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.286
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1099-159X
pISSN - 1062-7995
DOI - 10.1002/pip.2217
Subject(s) - nanometre , conductive atomic force microscopy , pedot:pss , materials science , photovoltaic system , nanoscopic scale , electrical contacts , nanotechnology , electrical conductor , micrometer , engineering physics , optoelectronics , atomic force microscopy , layer (electronics) , electrical engineering , mechanical engineering , composite material , physics , engineering
ABSTRACT Physical processes that lead to conversion of light into electrical energy inside photovoltaic devices happen at the nanoscale. Therefore, understanding of electrical properties of photovoltaic materials at this length scale is of paramount importance for improvement of device performance. In this paper, we describe and validate a new framework for high‐resolution quantitative measurements of electrical and mechanical properties of compliant materials with sub‐100‐nm resolution. Previous approaches have generally suffered from uncertainty in the quantitative level of contact between the probe and the material being measured; the methodology presented here overcomes this obstacle. We use the broadly studied ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PC 61 BM system as an example to illustrate variability of chemical composition and electrical properties of the active layer at hundred‐nanometers and micrometer length scales. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.