A novel approach for the characterization of a bilayer of phenyl-c71-butyric-acid-methyl ester and pentacene using ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy and argon gas cluster ion beam sputtering process

Abstract

The material arrangement and energy level alignment of an organic bilayer comprising of phenyl-c71-butyric-acid-methyl ester (PCBM-71) and pentacene were studied using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) and the argon gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) sputtering process. Although there is a small difference in the full width at half maximum of the carbon C 1s core level peaks and differences in the oxygen O 1s core levels of an X-ray photoemission spectroscopy spectra, these differences are insufficient to clearly distinguish between PCBM-71 and pentacene layers and to classify the interface and bulk regions. On the other hand, the valence band structures in the UPS spectra contain completely distinct configurations for the PCBM-71 and pentacene layers, even when they have similar atomic compositions. According to the valence band structures of the PCBM-71/pentacene/electrodes, the highest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO) region of pentacene is at least 0.8 eV closer to the Fermi level than that of PCBM-71 and it does not overlap with any of the chemical states in the valence band structure of PCBM-71. Therefore, by just following the variations in the area of the HOMO region of pentacene, the interface/bulk regions of the PCBM/pentacene layers were distinctly categorized. Besides, the variation of valence band structures as a function of the Ar GCIB sputtering time fully corroborated with the surface morphologies observed in the atomic force microscope images. In summary, we believe that the novel approach, which involves UPS analysis in conjunction with Ar GCIB sputtering, can be one of the best methods to characterize the material distribution and energy level alignments of stacks of organic layers.