AVS 49th International Symposium
    Organic Films and Devices Tuesday Sessions
       Session OF+SS+EL+SC-TuA

Paper OF+SS+EL+SC-TuA6
Characterization of Ultrathin Organic Films via Near-edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure Spectroscopy

Tuesday, November 5, 2002, 3:40 pm, Room C-102

Session: Organic Molecular Films
Presenter: T.M. Willey, University of California Davis and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Authors: T.M. Willey, University of California Davis and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
A.L. Vance, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
T. van Buuren, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
C. Bostedt, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
A.J. Nelson, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
L.J. Terminello, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
C.S. Fadley, University of California Davis and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Correspondent: Click to Email
Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and other thiol compounds adsorbed on Au(111) surfaces have become increasingly important for achieving surface attachment and orientation of complex molecules. Surface-attached molecular species containing catenanes and rotaxanes promise to play a vital role in achieving molecular-scale electronics and other devices.@footnote 1@ Only through a rigorous understanding of the structure and properties of such molecular monolayer species can a rational synthesis of these hybrid materials be realized. Orientation of chemical bonds and thus the orientation of molecules can be precisely determined with near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. Here, we present NEXAFS results on the configuration of surface-attached fundamental building-blocks of such systems, including a simple surface-attached rotaxane and its constituents. This rotaxane consists of a crown ether ring, threaded by a molecule bound to the gold at one end and providing an athracene stopper at the other.@footnote 2@ Investigating films of the stopper molecule only vs. the complete rotaxane we confirm the presence of the crown ether in the complete molecule. We present the orientation of the anthracene stopper and crown ether ring with respect to the surface by deconvoluting their respective features in the NEXAFS. @FootnoteText@ Acknowledgements: This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, BES Materials Sciences under contract W-7405-ENG-48, LLNL; at the ALS under contract number DE-AC03-76SF00098 at LBNL; and at the SSRL under contract number DE-AC03-76SF00515 at SLAC.@footnote 1@ Collier et al., Science 289, 1172-5@footnote 2@ Kolchinski et al., Chem. Commun., 1998, 1437-8