In-situ TEM investigation of the amorphous to crystalline phase change during electrical breakdown of highly conductive polymers at the atomic scale

Flexible electronics has been a field of intense research focus for the diverse and new class of applications not achievable by wafer-based electronics. [1-4] Polymers that are both conductive and stretchable have been put forward as a promising candidate for these device platforms. Due to the often amorphous nature of these material platforms the failure analysis knowledge gained from more traditional devices cannot be applied. The progression and innovation of flexible nanoelectronic manufacturing is dependent on understanding the fundamental physics governing the electronic breakdown of such materials and how to avoid this. In this study we investigate the highly conductive flexible amorphous 2D PEDOT [5-7] layers formed via liquid-liquid interface growth, Figure 1 (a). Utilising aberration corrected TEM and new fast camera technology we study the phase change from amorphous to crystalline at the atomic resolution by in-situ biasing.