Epitaxial organic film growth

Another emerging film growth technique that employs metal-organic film growth precursors is termed CBE (chemical beam epitaxy). CBE is a variant of the widely used MBE (molecular beam epitaxy) technique, except that metal-organic... 

Before illustrating actual examples of electrochemical growth of epitaxial organic films and their visualization by AEM, a brief description of the AFM method in this context is warranted. An atomic force microscope operates much like a surface profilometer. A small tip, usually of silicon or silicon nitride, at the end of a silicon cantilever is moved in small increments with piezoelectric actuators over the sample (or the sample is moved under... 

Chemical beam epitaxy a process in which one or more beams of volatile metal-organic precursors is directed to the substrate surface to effect film growth Chemical vapor deposition (CVD also termed vapor-phase epitaxy) the deposition of a thin film of an element or compound using some form of excitation for the decomposition of a volatile precursor... 

There are, however, a few planar aromatic molecules with different bulk structures which do show the existence of such orientational precursors. One of these exceptions is PTCDA (3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride) which has been extensively studied in the past and is commonly considered as a prototype system for organic thin film growth [62, 63]. Especially on Ag(l 11) an epitaxial growth of well-ordered PTCDA films was observed where molecules adopt the same arrangement as in the (102)-plane of the bulk structure of PTCDA [62]. An examination of this (102)-plane reveals that this... 

CavaUini M, Facchini M, Albonetti C, Biscarini F, Innocent M, Loglio F, Salvietti E, Pezzatini G, Forest ML (2007) Two-dimensional self-organization of CdS ultra thin films by confined electrochemical atomic layer epitaxy growth. J Phys Chem C Lett 111 1061-1064... 

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