Concepts for nondestructive and depth-resolved X-ray residual stress analysis in the near-surface region of nearly single crystalline materials with mosaic structure.

Two evaluation concepts for nondestructive depth-resolved X-ray residual stress analysis in the near-surface region of materials with cubic symmetry and nearly single crystalline structure are introduced by simulated examples. Both concepts are based on the same data acquisition strategy, which consists in the determination of lattice-spacing depth profiles along the 〈hkl〉 poles by stepwise sample rotation around the scattering vector. Segmentation of these profiles parallel to the sample surface provides the lattice strain state as a function of depth. The first evaluation concept extends the crystallite group method developed for materials with pronounced crystallographic texture by the feature of depth resolution and can be applied to samples with arbitrary orientation. The second evaluation concept, which adapts the linear regression approach of the sin2ψ method for the case of single crystalline materials, is restricted to samples with (001) orientation. The influence of the strain-free lattice parameter a 0 on residual stress analysis using both evaluation concepts is discussed on the basis of explicitly derived relations.

Nondestructive residual stress depth profile analysis at the inner surface of small boreholes using energy-dispersive diffraction under laboratory conditions.

Energy-dispersive diffraction under both laboratory and synchrotron conditions was applied to study the hoop stress in the near-surface region of the inner wall of boreholes with a small diameter of 2 mm. By use of different X-ray beam cross sections for the sin2ψ measurements, it is demonstrated that the borehole-to-beam-diameter ratio must be considered in the evaluation. A beam cross section which is comparable to the borehole diameter reduces the slope of the d hkl φψ-sin2ψ distributions and thus invalidates the result of stress analysis. A quantitative relationship is applied, which allows the results obtained under the above conditions to be scaled so that they reflect the actual residual stress state at the measurement position. Owing to the small diffraction angles, energy-dispersive diffraction proves to be the only suitable experimental technique that allows a nondestructive and depth-resolved analysis of the hoop stress component at the inner surface of boreholes with a large length-to-diameter ratio.

EDDIDAT: a graphical user interface for the analysis of energy-dispersive diffraction data.

EDDIDAT is a MATLAB-based graphical user interface for the convenient and versatile analysis of energy-dispersive diffraction data obtained at laboratory and synchrotron sources. The main focus of EDDIDAT up to now has been on the analysis of residual stresses, but it can also be used to prepare measurement data for subsequent phase analysis or analysis of preferred orientation. The program provides access to the depth-resolved analysis of residual stresses at different levels of approximation. Furthermore, the graphic representation of the results also serves for the consideration of microstructural and texture-related properties. The included material database allows for the quick analysis of the most common materials and is easily extendable. The plots and results produced with EDDIDAT can be exported to graphics and text files. EDDIDAT is designed to analyze diffraction data from various energy-dispersive X-ray sources. Hence it is possible to add new sources and implement the device-specific properties into EDDIDAT. The program is freely available to academic users.

Influence of the Grain Size on the Properties of CH3NH3PbI3 Thin Films.

Hybrid perovskites have already shown a huge success as an absorber in solar cells, resulting in the skyrocketing rise in the power conversion efficiency to more than η = 22%. Recently, it has been established that the crystal quality is one of the most important parameters to obtain devices with high efficiencies. However, the influence of the crystal quality on the material properties is not fully understood. Here, the influence of the morphology on electronic properties of CH3NH3PbI3 thin films is investigated. Postannealing was used to vary the average grain size continuously from ≈150 to ≈1000 nm. Secondary grain growth is thermally activated with an activation energy of Ea = 0.16 eV. The increase in the grain size leads to an enhancement of the photoluminescence, indicating an improvement in the material quality. According to surface photovoltage measurements, the charge-carrier transport length exhibits a linear increase with increasing grain size. The charge-carrier diffusion length is limited by grain boundaries. Moreover, an improved morphology leads to a drastic increase in power conversion efficiency of the devices.