title: Sub-nanometre resolution imaging of polymer-fullerene photovoltaic blends using energy-filtered scanning electron microscopy.
abstract: The resolution capability of the scanning electron microscope has increased immensely in recent years, and is now within the sub-nanometre range, at least for inorganic materials. An equivalent advance has not yet been achieved for imaging the morphologies of nanostructured organic materials, such as organic photovoltaic blends. Here we show that energy-selective secondary electron detection can be used to obtain high-contrast, material-specific images of an organic photovoltaic blend. We also find that we can differentiate mixed phases from pure material phases in our data. The lateral resolution demonstrated is twice that previously reported from secondary electron imaging. Our results suggest that our energy-filtered scanning electron microscopy approach will be able to make major inroads into the understanding of complex, nano-structured organic materials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sir Robert Hadfield Building, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK.
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Masters
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, Cavendish Laboratory, 19 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Pearson
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, Cavendish Laboratory, 19 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK.
authors.forename: Tom S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Glen
authors.affiliation: FEI Co. Europe NanoPort, Achtseweg Noord 5, Eindhoven, 5651 GG, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Fabian-Cyril
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Sasam
authors.affiliation: FEI Co. Europe NanoPort, Achtseweg Noord 5, Eindhoven, 5651 GG, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Letian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT*-FBK) and Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications (TIFPA-INFN), via Sommarive 18, Trento I-38123, Italy.
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dapor
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, Cavendish Laboratory, 19 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK.
authors.forename: Athene M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Donald
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Hicks Building, Hounsfield Road, Sheffield S3 7RH, UK.
authors.forename: David G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Lidzey
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sir Robert Hadfield Building, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK.
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rodenburg