Publication date: 11th March 2026
Non-fullerene acceptor (NFA) based systems have enabled significant advancements in the field of organic photovoltaics. Understanding how nanoscale morphology and local electronic properties influence device performance requires characterization techniques capable of probing multiple physical properties with high spatial resolution. Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) provides such a capability by enabling local measurements of mechanical, chemical, and electronic properties at the nanoscale. However, characterization of NFA active layers remains challenging due to the small domain size and high degree of intermixing.
In this work, we demonstrate how correlative analysis using multiple SPM modes can investigate complex relationships between morphology, chemical composition, mechanical, electrical, and photovoltaic local properties in model systems. Peak Force Tapping is used to identify different phases based on their nanomechanical properties. AFM-IR provides information on the spatial distribution of the donor and acceptor components through detection of local thermal expansion induced by infrared absorption at selected wavenumber. Photoconductive AFM measurements are used to probe the nanoscale response under illumination, providing information about the local photocurrent generation. Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) is used to distinguish the two materials based on differences in their work function, and measurements performed in the dark and under illumination enable extraction of the local photovoltage.
By the correlative analysis of these properties, a deeper understanding of the organization of the donor and acceptor within the active layer is possible. This original approach enables multichannel properties extraction that can help optimize and design higher efficient devices for the future.
This research was partially funded by the F.R.S. – FNRS Grands Equipements and F.R.S. – FNRS Missions Out (PL) and In (EM)
We acknowledges the Swedish Research Council for financial support of the project (grant nr. 2021−04798). For financial support of the research infrastructure the authors thank the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (grant nr. 2016.0059).
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.