Know your full potential: Quantitative Kelvin probe force microscopy on nanoscale electrical devices

• Amelie Axt,
• Ilka M. Hermes,
• Victor W. Bergmann,
• Niklas Tausendpfund and
• Stefan A. L. Weber

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1809–1819, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.172

• observed fundamental differences in the potential distribution when using FM sideband KPFM as compared to AM lift mode KPFM (Figure 1). The cell was under short circuit conditions and could be illuminated with a white light source from the side. Further details on the solar cell, the sample preparation and

• higher potential in the mesoscopic TiO2 and the MAPI capping layer. The illumination-induced potential difference resolved by AM-KPFM was less than 50 mV and no local features could be observed. Thus, only using AM lift mode, we likely would have missed the illumination induced changes in the potential

• distribution, which we assigned to unbalanced charge extraction from the perovskite layer. The absence of local features in the potential distribution imaged with AM lift mode KPFM, the potential offset of +1 V, as well as the reduced potential increase upon illumination suggested that the spatial and