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The last decade has witnessed a rapid growth in the use of in situ and operando techniques, in which materials and devices are probed under conditions which resemble as closely as possible those used under real operating environments, with time-resolved measurements increasingly being made as well. Electron beam techniques and Kelvin probe force microscopy have led the way as powerful tools to study charge separation and recombination at the nanoscale. However, despite their strengths, there are several limitations imposed by their penetration depth, and sample preparation requirements that limit their ability to suitably represent the full system under study.
In this talk I will cover how X-rays are an ideal way to noninvasively obtain information from full devices demanding little or no specimen preparation even under working conditions. Workhorse techniques such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and multi-dimensional imaging can be coupled with X-ray beam–induced current (XBIC) to study the effect of structure and composition inside a device. Furthermore, because the interaction of X-rays with matter is highly energy-dependent around the absorption edges of the probed atoms, energy-dependent X-ray studies can be used to probe changes in the local atomic environments during operation with high sensitivity.
The field of operando science is growing rapidly and offers tremendous opportunities to uncover the relationship between structure, properties, composition and performance at the nanoscale for optoelectronic materials and devices.
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