1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
[16p-P5-1] Reduced Nucleation Rate of Metal Nanocrystals around Molecular Steps on Organic Crystal Surfaces
Keywords:molecular step, nucleation, metal vapor deposition
Metal-vapor deposition on organic crystal surfaces is an essential process in organic electronics. The presence of steps and/or kinks on the surfaces plays an important role for nucleation and crystal growth. In general, the nucleation rate of vaporized atoms/molecules is accelerates on such steps, but we found a phenomenon that nucleation rate of metal nanocrystals around the molecular steps during metal-vapor deposition was reduced. Mg-vapor deposition formed striped metal patterns on a diarylethene (DAE) crystal surface at a substrate temperature of 35oC along the crystallite. AFM characterization revealed that Mg nucleation avoided the surface molecular steps. We elucidated that active diffusion of DAE molecules around the steps reduced the nucleation rate of the Mg nanocrystals.