Spatiotemporal Observation of Electron-Impact Dynamics in Photovoltaic Materials Using 4D Electron Microscopy

Abstract
Understanding light-triggered charge carrier dynamics near photovoltaic-material surfaces and at interfaces has been a key element and one of the major challenges for the development of real-world energy devices. Visualization of such dynamics information can be obtained using the one-of-a-kind methodology of scanning ultrafast electron microscopy (S-UEM). Here, we address the fundamental issue of how the thickness of the absorber layer may significantly affect the charge carrier dynamics on material surfaces. Time-resolved snapshots indicate that the dynamics of charge carriers generated by electron impact in the electron-photon dynamical probing regime is highly sensitive to the thickness of the absorber layer, as demonstrated using CdSe films of different thicknesses as a model system. This finding not only provides the foundation for potential applications of S-UEM to a wide range of devices in the fields of chemical and materials research, but also has impact on the use and interpretation of electron beam-induced current for optimization of photoactive materials in these devices.

Citation
Shaheen BS, Sun J, Yang D-S, Mohammed OF (2017) Spatiotemporal Observation of Electron-Impact Dynamics in Photovoltaic Materials Using 4D Electron Microscopy. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 8: 2455–2462. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b01116.

Acknowledgements
The work reported here was supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). D.-S.Y. acknowledges the support from the R. A. Welch Foundation (Grant No. E-1860). The authors acknowledge B. Murali for providing standard SEM images for the CdSe films.

Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)

Journal
The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

DOI
10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b01116

PubMed ID
28514160

Additional Links
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b01116

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