Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 6: Poster: Structural Ordering and Electronic Transport (joint focus with HL)

CPP 6.5: Poster

Monday, March 26, 2012, 17:30–19:30, Poster A

Subsurface imaging of P3HT:PCBM blends — •Martin Dehnert¹, Mario Zerson¹, Sven Hüttner², Zhuxia Rong², Ullrich Steiner², and Robert Magerle¹ — ¹Fakultät für Naturwissenschaften, Technische Universität Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Germany — ²Cavendish Laboratory, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, U.K.

We investigate the surface morphology of thin films of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) blends using AFM based amplitude-phase-distance-curves (APD). We use the indentation of the tip into the soft surface layer to measure the mechanical properties as a function of the tip indentation which allows reconstructing three dimensional depth profiles of the top 10 nm of the film. We show surface depth profiles of blends with varying ratio of P3HT:PCBM and study structural changes after different thermal annealing steps. The soft amorphous layer on the surface are formed to be between five and ten nanometers thick. We discuss the impact of the surface morphology and the amorphous top layer on the efficiency of organic solar cells.