Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Direct observation of organic molecular nanocrystals and their evolution using electron microscopy is extremely challenging, due to their radiation sensitivity and complex structure. Here, we introduce 4D-scanning confocal electron diffraction (4D-SCED), which enables direct in situ observation of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) thin films. 4D-SCED combines confocal electron optic setup with a pixelated detector to record focused spot-like diffraction patterns with high angular resolution, using an order of magnitude lower dose than previous methods. We apply it to study an active layer in organic solar cells, namely DRCN5T:PC₇₁BM BHJ thin films. Structural details of DRCN5T nano-crystallites oriented both in- and out-of-plane are imaged at ~5 nm resolution and dose budget of ~5 e^-/Ų. We use in situ annealing to observe the growth of the donor crystals, evolution of the crystal orientation, and progressive enrichment of PC₇₁BM at interfaces. This highly dose-efficient method opens more possibilities for studying beam sensitive soft materials.