Quantifying local thickness and composition in thin films of organic photovoltaic blends by Raman scattering
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We report a methodology based on Raman spectroscopy that enables the non-invasive and fast quantitative determination of local thickness and composition in thin films (from a few monolayers to hundreds of nm) of one or more components. We apply our methodology to blends of organic conjugated materials relevant in the field of organic photovoltaics. As a first step, we exploit the transfer-matrix formalism to describe the Raman process in thin films including reabsorption and interference effects of the incoming and scattered electric fields. This allows determining the effective solid-state Raman cross-section of each material by studying the dependence of the Raman intensity on film thickness. These effective cross sections are then used to estimate the local thickness and composition in a series of polymer:fullerene blends. We find that the model is accurate within ±10 nm in thickness and ±5 vol% in composition provided that (i) the film thickness is kept below the thickness corresponding to the first maximum of the calculated Raman intensity oscillation; (ii) the materials making up the blend show close enough effective Raman cross-sections; and (iii) the degree of order attained by the conjugated polymer in the blend is similar to that achieved when cast alone. Our methodology opens the possibility of making quantitative maps of composition and thickness over large areas (from microns to centimetres squared) with diffraction-limited resolution and in any multi-component system based thin film technology.
Date Issued
2017-08-07
Date Acceptance
2017-06-21
Citation
Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 2017, 5 (29), pp.7270-7282
ISSN
2050-7526
Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
Start Page
7270
End Page
7282
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Materials Chemistry C
Volume
5
Issue
29
Copyright Statement
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence.
License URL
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Identifier
https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000406376000017
Grant Number
EP/K029843/1
EP/M025020/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Physical Sciences
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Physics, Applied
Materials Science
Physics
POLYMER SOLAR-CELLS
POWER-CONVERSION EFFICIENCY
HIGH-PERFORMANCE
NANOSCALE MORPHOLOGY
PHASE-SEPARATION
MOLECULAR ORDER
SPECTROSCOPY
TRANSISTORS
MICROSCOPY
RESOLUTION
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2017-07-06