Exploiting the process of thin film printing for structure manipulation tracked by grazing incidence scattering*

Thin films can have intriguing properties that are exploitable for consumer good applications. Such properties are strongly linked to the morphology on the nanoscale within such thin films. X-ray scattering can be a very powerful tool to resolve such structures, and also, to carry out time-resolved measurements to track the actual formation of the final nanostructures.
We have developed a dedicated set-up that allows us to print, manipulate and examine functional thin films [1]. Using X-rays we have previously demonstrated that structure formation is then trackable and can be used to gain insights into the effect of processing parameters on the structure formation process [2]. While continuously improving the processing and characterization capabilities, we are currently starting to systematically investigate different processing parameters like temperature and solvent atmosphere to understand structure formation mechanisms and their control in various thin film solar cell material systems.

[1] S. Pröller, D. Moseguí González, C. Zhu, E. Schaible, C. Wang, P. Müller-Buschbaum, A. Hexemer, E. M. Herzig, Review of Scientific Instruments 88, 6: 066101 (2017)
[2] S. Pröller, F. Liu, C. Zhu, C. Wang, T.P. Russell, A. Hexemer, P. Müller-Buschbaum, E.M. Herzig, Advanced Energy Materials, 6: 1501580 (2016)