Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV14)
Publication date: 1st March 2014
Morphology, both at the nano- and the micro-scale, plays a major role in several processes which affect the behaviour of thin film solar cells, including conventional dye sensitised (DSSC), polymer heterojunction and recently introduced perovskite-based cells. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM/TEM), in combination with focused ion beam (FIB) milling, can be used to investigate properties in both 2D and 3D at different length scales, providing unique tools for the preparation and characterization of nanostructured composite specimens.
In particular, FIB/SEM "slice & view" imaging can be used to visualize the 3D structure of a device over a volume of several cubic microns. The spatial resolution of the technique is of the order of 5-10 nm in the lateral direction, and 50-100 nm in the milling (sliding) direction. FIB milling can also be used to extract planar or columnar sections of the devices, which can be imaged in a TEM with high spatial resolution, in 2D or 3D using electron tomography. Electron tomography on a cylindrical sample results in a high-accuracy reconstruction of the volume under analysis with nanometre spatial resolution [1]. FIB and electron tomography can therefore be combined to provide information ranging more than three orders of magnitude in length scale.
Here we apply this approach to quantitatively characterise and compare a conventional DSSC based on a TiO2 paste and a hierarchically-structured, quasi-1D device produced using pulsed laser deposition. In the latter, TiO2 particles self-assemble in vertical pillars, resulting in a network that combines a large surface area with a geometry that favours the infiltration with a hole transporter.
To demonstrate FIB preparation of lamellae as well as the possibilities offered by recent developments in analytical TEMs, we also show an example of a characterisation of a novel solar cell design - a perovskite-based device with plasmonic core-shell nanoparticles. Elemental mapping is employed to verify the composition and the interfaces between different functional layers, determining the distribution of metal particles.
Cross-sectional (A) and 3D (B) imaging of a DSSC photoanode using FIB slice & view.
[1] Divitini, G. et al. Nanoscale analysis of a hierarchical hybrid solar cell in 3D. Advanced Functional Materials 2013, in press.
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