Development of a Deposition Chamber for In-Situ Characterisation of Organic Thin Films using Neutron Scattering

The student will use X-rays and neturons to characterise the microstructure of vaccum-deposited OSCs, with a focus on bridging our understanding of thin film microstructure with underlying solar cell device physics. He will carry out his research using our world-class X-ray characterisation facilities in Oxford for ex-situ studies,as well as our new deposition chamber at Diamond Light Source beamline I07 for in-situ X-ray scattering (Co-supervisor Prof Chris Nicklin). This studentship will also exploit techniques available at the new Larmor instrument at ISIS for the characterisation of OSC thin films (Co-supervisor Dr Robert Dalgliesh), including small-angle neutron scattering and spin-precession methods, with the goal of developing a similar deposition chamber for in-situ deposition measurements at Larmor. These unique sample environments will lay the foundation for new, world-leading capabilities for the study of OSCs and other vacuum-deposited advanced functional materials.

This project falls within the EPSRC Physical Sciences research area where Energy and Manufacturing the Future are two of the themes.