Adsorption height alignment at heteromolecular hybrid interfaces

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.89.161407

Authors: Benjamin Stadtmuller (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH) , Sonja Schroder (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH) , Francois Bocquet (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH) , Caroline Henneke (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH) , Christoph Kleimann (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH) , Serguei Soubatch (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH) , Martin Willenbockel (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH) , Blanka Detlefs (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) , Jorg Zegenhagen (Diamond Light Source) , Tien--Lin Lee (Diamond Light Source) , Stefan Tautz (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH) , Christian Kumpf (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Physical Review B , VOL 89 , PAGES 161407(R)

State: Published (Approved)
Published: April 2014
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 8449 , 9231

Abstract: The formation of metalorganic hybrid interfaces is determined by the fine balance between molecule-substrate and molecule-molecule interactions at the interface. Here, we report on a systematic investigation of interfaces between a metal surface and organic monolayer films that consist of two different molecular species, one donor and one acceptor of electronic charge. Our x-ray standing wave data show that in heteromolecular structures, the molecules tend to align themselves to an adsorption height between those observed in the respective homomolecular structures. We attribute this alignment effect to a substrate-mediated charge transfer between the molecules, which causes a mutual enhancement of their respective donor and acceptor characters. We argue that this effect is of general validity for π-conjugated molecules adsorbing on noble metal surfaces.

Subject Areas: Physics, Materials


Instruments: I09-Surface and Interface Structural Analysis

Other Facilities: ID32 at ESRF

Added On: 25/04/2014 10:31

Discipline Tags:

Surfaces Physics Materials Science interfaces and thin films

Technical Tags:

Diffraction X-ray Standing Wave (XSW)