title: Morphology of polythiophene and polyphenyl films produced via surface polymerization by ion-assisted deposition.
abstract: Conducting polymer films are grown by either mass-selected or non-mass-selected, hyperthermal thiophene ions coincident on a surface with a thermal beam of organic monomers of either alpha-terthiophene (3T) or p-terphenyl (3P) neutrals. Previous experiments verified polymerization of both 3T and 3P by 200 eV C(4)H(4)S(+) during surface polymerization by ion-assisted deposition (SPIAD). A wide variety of structures are observed by scanning electron microscopy to form in the SPIAD polythiophene and polyphenyl films. These structures include microscale islands, lamellar structures, fractal-like growth patterns, and nanoscale crystallites. Some of the deposited films diffract X-rays while others show electron micrographs of crystallites. The variation of these patterns with deposition conditions clearly indicate that ion-induced polymerization mediates film morphology through control of ion energy and ion/neutral ratio. Furthermore, these ion-assisted events mediate important thermal processes such as sublimation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois 60607-7061, USA.
authors.forename: Sanja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tepavcevic
authors.forename: Adam M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Zachary
authors.forename: Amanda T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Wroble
authors.forename: Yongsoo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Luke
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hanley