Growth of extended DNTT fibers on metal substrates by suppression of step-induced nucleation

Abstract

Due to their anisotropic optoelectronic properties, crystalline organic fibers constitute an interesting class of nanoscale materials with great potential for integration into future optoelectronic devices based on organic–inorganic hybrid systems. While chemical synthesis allows for flexible tailoring of electronic molecular properties, structural control of hybrid structures is hampered by the incompatibility of traditional structuring methods such as, e.g. lithography, with these molecular materials. Therefore, other approaches must be used. Here we examine the formation of crystalline fibers of dinaphthothienothiophene (DNTT), a recently synthesized chemically robust organic semiconductor with high charge carrier mobility, upon film growth on noble metal substrates. Based on a comparison of the film growth on a regularly stepped, vicinal surface, we show that substrate steps affect the azimuthal molecular orientation in the seed layer. In particular, they induce a fiber orientation which competes with that of fibers formed on flat terraces and thereby strongly limits the fiber dimensions. We demonstrate a strategy to suppress this parasitical step-induced fiber nucleation by first exposing Ag(111) surfaces to oxygen, or even briefly to ambient conditions, which causes a selective saturation of the active step sites, while subsequent deposition of DNTT yields strongly enlarged fibers that are epitaxially aligned on the (111) surface.