Imaging prototypical aromatic molecules on insulating surfaces: a review

Abstract

Insulating substrates allow for in-plane contacted molecular electronics devices where the molecule is in contact with the insulator. For the development of such devices it is important to understand the interaction of molecules with insulating surfaces. As substrates, ionic crystals such as KBr, KCl, NaCl and CaF2 are discussed. The surface energies of these substrates are small and as a consequence intrinsic properties of the molecules, such as molecule–molecule interaction, become more important relative to interactions with the substrates. As prototypical molecules, three variants of graphene-related molecules are used, pentacene, and PTCDA. Pentacene is a good candidate for molecular electronics applications due to its high charge carrier mobility. It shows mainly an upright standing growth mode and the morphology of the islands is strongly influenced by dewetting. A new second flat-lying phase of the molecule has been observed. Studying the local work function using the Kelvin method reveals details such as line defects in the center of islands. The local work function differences between the upright-standing and flat-lying phase can only be explained by charge transfer that is unusual on ionic crystalline surfaces. nucleation and growth is explained by loosely bound molecules at kink sites as nucleation sites. The stability of islands as a function of magic numbers is investigated. Peculiar island shapes are obtained from unusual dewetting processes already at work during growth, where molecules ‘climb’ to the second molecular layer. PTCDA is a prototypical semiconducting molecule with strong quadrupole moment. It grows in the form of elongated islands where the top and the facets can be molecularly resolved. In this way the precise molecular arrangement in the islands is revealed.