2025/02/16 by Kraus, Irene, Mingjian Wu, Wu, Mingjian +23 · 1 citation
Materials Science · #Electron and X-Ray Spectroscopy Techniques #FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.11254
openalex publication_date 2025/02/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Optimizing the performance of organic solar cells (OSCs) hinges on a comprehensive understanding of their nanostructures, yet traditional characterization methods often fall short, delivering incomplete structural snapshots. We introduce elastically filtered 3D Electron Diffraction (3D ED) as a ground-breaking technique bridging full reciprocal- and real-space structural analysis within a single transmission electron microscope (TEM). Using solvent-vapor annealed DRCN5T:PC71BM, 3D ED reproduces key structural parameters from GIWAXS including lattice spacings, coherence lengths, and mosaicity, while uniquely delivering true in-plane access and direct registration with high-resolution imaging, diffraction imaging and nano-spectroscopy on the same sample. A low-dose, distributed tilt strategy plus energy filtering yields high signal-to-background below damage thresholds. Extension to a second archetypal blend (P3HT:PC71BM; annealing evolution) demonstrates generality. Our findings underscore the transformative potential of 3D ED, particularly in analysing beam-sensitive organic thin films. This paves the way for new avenues in advanced correlative structural characterization of OSCs and holds potential for application to a multitude of other nanostructured materials.