Publication date: 15th December 2025
Organic photovoltaic materials have reached power conversion efficiencies above 20%, yet their long-term operational stability remains a critical challenge. Processing conditions strongly influence molecular organization in the active layer, affecting orientation, intermolecular interactions, and ultimately the electronic structure of donor–acceptor systems. Understanding how these structural and electronic factors interrelate is essential for improving intrinsic photostability.
In this talk, I will present our recent work investigating the impact of processing on the electronic structure of high-performance organic photovoltaic materials using orbital-selective X-ray spectroscopy. Angular-dependent multi-edge NEXAFS measurements provide chemically selective insight into molecular orientation and depth-dependent organization in thin films. [1,2] By probing both carbon and heteroatom absorption edges, we disentangle the contributions of donor and acceptor components to the unoccupied electronic states.
Building on this structural and electronic understanding, we employ resonant photoemission spectroscopy to resolve the contribution of distinct chemical moieties to the valence electronic states. Resonant excitation enhances orbital selectivity, enabling chemically specific tracking of light-induced modifications in the occupied states. This approach provides direct insight into which molecular sites are particularly susceptible to photodegradation. Together, these approaches establish a chemically selective and orbital-resolved methodology for linking processing, electronic structure, and photostability in organic photovoltaic materials, offering guidance for the design of more robust active-layer systems.
We thank the synchrotron Solaris (under contract nr 1/SOL/2021/2), the CERIC–ERIC Consortium for the access to experimental facilities and financial support, the Swedish Research Council for the project funding (grant nr. 2021–04798). We acknowledge the MAX IV Laboratory for beamtime on the FlexPES beamline under proposal 20230295.
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