Nanoscale electrical characterization of semiconducting polymer blends by conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM)

For the first time local electrical characteristics of a blend of two semiconducting polymers were studied with conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM). The investigated mixture is potentially interesting as the active layer in plastic photovoltaic devices. Besides conventional topography analysis of morphology and phase separation, the internal structure of the active layer was investigated by observing the current distribution with nanoscale spatial resolution. Similar to force spectroscopy, current imaging spectroscopy was performed during scanning the sample surface. Different types of current–voltage (I–V) characteristics were extracted from the array of spectroscopic data obtained from each point of the scans, and local heterogeneities of the electric characteristic were determined and discussed.