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Time-resolved X-ray investigations of metal layer growth on functional thin films
Stephan V. Roth1, Matthias Schwartzkopf1, Shun Yu2, Gonzalo Santoro1, Ralph Döhrmann1,
Sarathlal Koyiloth Vayalil1, Johannes Risch1, Jannik Wöhnert1, Peng Zhang1, Peter MüllerBuschbaum3, Wilfried Wurth4
1) Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestr. 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany; 2) KTH
Royal Institute of Technology, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Polymeric
Materials & Wallenberg Wood Science Center (WWSC), Teknikringen 56-58, SE-100 44
Stockholm, Sweden; 3) TU München, Physik-Department, Lehrstuhl für Funktionelle
Materialien, James-Franck-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany; 4) Department Physik, Institut für
Experimentalphysik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, D-22761 Hamburg, Germany
Targeted installation of nanostructured metal films for application devices is of utmost
importance in many areas of modern science and technology, including organic photovoltaics
(OPV), sensors, and plasmonics. Such devices consist of several organic, inorganic and metallic
layers being installed using fluidic coating and vacuum deposition methods. Among vacuum
deposition, sputter deposition as a flexible and high-throughput technique is widely used to install
sensors, e.g. surface-enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS)) [1] as well as contact layer materials in
organic electronics [2] and OPV [3].
In order to understand the metal layer growth at the interface with polymers, real-time
observations of metal layer fabrication are indispensable. Here, we follow several routes. Based
on an application-related model system, we follow the growth of gold (Au) on a dielectric surface
[4]. We have established a generic geometric growth model, which is corroborated by kinetic
monte-carlo simulations [5]. We extend this to the case of small-molecule devices, which can be
used in information technology. A detailed analysis of the growth kinetics reveals a multi-stage
growth going hand in hand with the establishment of a doping layer inside the soft smallmolecule layer [2]. The nanostructural growth is correlated with the optical properties, thereby
establishing a detailed nanostructure-function relationship.
Fig. Growth model for Aluminium
Alq3 [2].
on
[1] Singh et al., Nanoscale 4, 3410 (2012); [2] Yu et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 4, 3170 (2013)
[3] Kaune et al., ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 3, 1055 (2011); [4] Schwartzkopf et al. RSC
Nanoscale 5, 5053 (2013); [5] Wöhnert, B.Sc. thesis, Univ. Hamburg, (2014)