Organic vapor phase deposition: a new method for the growth of organic thin films with large optical non-linearities

Abstract

We describe a novel technique, organic vapor phase deposition, for the growth of thin films of optically non-linear organic salts. A volatile precursor of each component of the salt is carried as a vapor to a hot-wall reaction chamber by independently controlled streams of carrier gas. The components react to form a polycrystalline thin film on substrates of glass and gold. Excess reactants and reaction products are purged from the system by the carrier gas. As an example, we demonstrate the growth of polycrystalline, optically non-linear thin films of 4′-dimethylamino-N-methyl-4-stilbazolium tosylate (DAST) with > 95% purity.