AVS 50th International Symposium
    Contacts to Organic Materials Topical Conference Tuesday Sessions
       Session OM-TuP

Paper OM-TuP3
Potential Imaging of Metal-organic Semiconductor Interfaces using Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy

Tuesday, November 4, 2003, 5:30 pm, Room Hall A-C

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: O. Tal, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Authors: O. Tal, Tel Aviv University, Israel
W. Gao, Princeton University
L. Friedman, Princeton University
A. Kahn, Princeton University
Y. Rosenwaks, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Correspondent: Click to Email
Understanding and improving the performance of organic electronic devices depends, to a great extent, on the elucidation of organic materials interfaces with inorganic and organic solids alike. Therefore these interfaces are the focus of this work. We present a study of two dimensional (2-D) potential profiles across metal-organic film interfaces (metal- Au or Al, organic film - tris(8-hydroxyquinolino) aluminum [Alq@sub 3@]) with nanometer spatial resolution provided by Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) in a nitrogen environment. The contact potential difference (CPD) is measured across Al/Alq@sub 3@/Al, Au/Alq@sub 3@/Au and Au/Alq@sub 3@/Al sandwich-like structures following cleavage under the inert atmosphere. The CPD profiles are in a very good agreement with vacuum level profiles estimated by calculation, which are based on ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) measurements. Preliminary measurements of these structures and "device-type" structures under operating conditions will be presented and discussed. This work is the first step in providing a new and unique type of information on the electronic structure of metal-organic and organic-organic interfaces, as determined by KPFM and additional techniques.