Scaling behavior of ZnPc thin films grown on CuI interlayers

Abstract

The growth behavior and consequent surface morphology evolution of zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) thin films deposited on a CuI interlayer were studied using atomic force microscopy and height difference correlation function (HDCF) analysis. The planar phthalocyanine thin films grown on non-interacting substrates have previously been reported to show anomalous scaling behavior such as large growth exponents, s, sometimes larger than 0.5, and small anomaly values, ρ, typically smaller than 0.6. In contrast, ZnPc thin films on a CuI interlayer (CuI/ ZnPc) in this work showed conventional scaling behavior with a s value of 0.26 ± 0.05 and a ρ value of 0.91. The HDCF analyses and x-ray diffraction results indicate that the expected interdigitated electron donor-acceptor interface was hardly formed for the CuI/ZnPc thin film system due to the lack of surface-parallel crystallites with high step edge barriers.