Optoelectronic devices at the nanoscale: performance and stability

Emerging solar and illumination technologies are generating enormous potential for a new paradigm in energy generation and transformation. A new material, hybrid perovskites, have shown promising potential as energy materials. However, their properties are dictated by a complicated nanostructure, which has directly affect the device performance. In this project, electron microscopy is used as an optimal way of accessing physical and material properties on these small length scales.
Studies to date have been primarily limited to ex situ measurements in which devices are studied under conditions different than real ones. Here, we aim to utilise state of the art deposition and characterisation techniques to fabricate fully working perovskite solar cells and LED devices on transmission electron microscope chips, to allow their study in operando (i.e. under illumination and/or applied bias). We will use these measurements to extract the nanoscale device chemical and dielectric properties, in turn providing feedback about device performance and stability alongside simultaneous direct device measurements. These measurements will provide a new platform to obtain important new information about these devices, as well as facilitate development of a new technique applicable to a wide range of semiconducting devices.