Self-Assembly Growth of Organic Thin Films and Nanostructures by Molecular Beam Deposition

Abstract

The concept of supramolecular assemblies based on strong and directional hydrogen bonding has been applied to organic molecular beam deposition (OMBD) for growth of anisotropic nanostructures and thin films. Aligned nanostructures were generated on Ag(111) surfaces. Thin films with a thickness of 100-400 nm were grown on glass substrates by oblique incidence OMBD, and studied by second harmonic generation experiments, indicating that the average direction of the dipolar molecules in the films was parallel to the projection of the molecular beam on the substrate surface. This intriguing result is rationalized by a proposed mechanism considering the fundamental processes of self-assembly on surfaces.