AVS 51st International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Thursday Sessions
       Session NS2-ThM

Paper NS2-ThM4
Controlled Polymerization of Substituted Diacetylene Self-assembled Monolayers Confined in Molecule Corrals

Thursday, November 18, 2004, 9:20 am, Room 213D

Session: Nanowires I
Presenter: S.P. Sullivan, University of Delaware
Authors: T.P. Beebe, Jr., University of Delaware
A. Schnieders, ION-TOF USA, Inc.
S.P. Sullivan, University of Delaware
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The ever growing need to further miniaturize integrated circuits has lead to an increase in research on nanoelectronics. We have shown that it is possible to directly polymerize self-assembled 10, 12-tricosadiynoic acid (TCDA) adsorbed on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) at the solid/liquid interface using a Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) tip. Polymerized oligomers are formed at a predefined point where a voltage pulse is applied while operating in Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy (STS) mode. The oligomers can be confined and controlled on the nanometer scale using molecule corrals created on the substrate via ToF-SIMS Cs@super +@ ion bombardment. In over ~ 150 observations polymerized oligomers never extended over domain boundaries or corral edges, providing natural connection points to possibly test the electrical properties of the nanowires. The quasi-infinite supply of diacetylene molecules remaining in the covering solution enables a dynamic exchange of molecules to the surface. This exchange occurred on approximately the same time scale (10@super -1@ s) as it does to collect one image, and depends weakly on the length of the desorbing oligomer. The desorption is thus likely influenced by tip-surface interactions as is often the case in STM experiments. A theoretical model is currently being developed to further our understanding of the effect of oliogmer length on the rate of oligomer desorption from the HOPG surface.