title: Morphology Change of C60 Islands on Organic Crystals Observed by Atomic Force Microscopy.
abstract: Organic-organic heterojunctions are nowadays highly regarded materials for light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors, and photovoltaic cells with the prospect of designing low-cost, flexible, and efficient electronic devices.1-3 However, the key parameter of optimized heterojunctions relies on the choice of the molecular compounds as well as on the morphology of the organic-organic interface,4 which thus requires fundamental studies. In this work, we investigated the deposition of C60 molecules at room temperature on an organic layer compound, the salt bis(benzylammonium)bis(oxalato)cupurate(II), by means of noncontact atomic force microscopy. Three-dimensional molecular islands of C60 having either triangular or hexagonal shapes are formed on the substrate following a "Volmer-Weber" type of growth. We demonstrate the dynamical reshaping of those C60 nanostructures under the local action of the AFM tip at room temperature. The dissipated energy is about 75 meV and can be interpreted as the activation energy required for this migration process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Basel , Klingelbergstraße 82, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Freund
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Basel , Klingelbergstraße 82, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hinaut
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Basel , Klingelbergstraße 82, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Rémy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pawlak
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern , Freiestraße 3, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Shi-Xia
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern , Freiestraße 3, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Silvio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Decurtins
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Basel , Klingelbergstraße 82, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ernst
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Basel , Klingelbergstraße 82, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Thilo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Glatzel
keywords: C60 molecule; diffusion; manipulation; noncontact atomic force microscopy; organic compound crystals