Invited Paper SY+SS+BI-TuM5
High-Resolution X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy as a Versatile Tool for the Characterization of Monomolecular Self-Assembled Films

Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 9:20 am, Room 310

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) have recently attracted considerable interest in physics, chemistry and biology due to their ability to control wetting, adhesion, lubrication and corrosion on surfaces and interfaces and their capability to become building blocks of future electronic devices. All the above applications rely on deep understanding of properties of these systems and precise knowledge of their structure. We will review recent progress in characterization of SAMs with a chalcogen headgroup on coinage metal and semiconductor substrates by high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HRXPS). As compared to conventional XPS with a laboratory X-ray source, HRXPS, which usually takes advantage of both ultimate energy resolution and tunable photon energy (synchrotron), is capable to deliver additional information on the objects of interest, including screening phenomena, homogeneity of the bonding configurations, charge transfer upon the headgroup-substrate bond formation, etc. Also, this technique is very useful when dealing with systems exhibiting a large diversity of chemical species such as, e.g., SAMs on GaAs substrates. A variety of examples will be provided. Further, it will be shown that photoemission in SAMs cannot always be described within the standard theoretical framework, which have important implications for both understanding of the XPS/HRXPS spectra of the relevant SAM-derived systems and practical applications.