Epitaxial growth of sexi-thiophene and para-hexaphenyl and its implications for the fabrication of self-assembled lasing nano-fibres

摘要

Over the last few years, epitaxially grown self-assembled organic nano-structures became of increasing interest due to their high potential for implementation within opto-electronic devices. Exemplarily, the epitaxial growth of the rod-like molecules para-hexaphenyl (p-6P) and α-sexi-thiophene (6T) is discussed within this review. Both molecules tend to crystallize in highly asymmetric elongated entities which are also called nano-fibres. It is demonstrated that the obtained needle orientations and morphologies result from a complex interplay between various parameters e.g. substrate surface symmetry, molecular adsorption, crystal structure and contact plane. The interplay and its implications on the fabrication of self-assembled waveguiding nano-fibres and optical resonator structures are discussed and substantiated by a comparison with the reported literature. In further consequence, it is demonstrated that a precise control on the molecular adsorption geometry and the crystal contact plane represents a fundamental key parameter for the fabrication of self-assembled nano-fibres. As both parameters are basically determined by the chosen molecule-substrate material couple, the possible spectrum of molecular building blocks for the fabrication of waveguiding and lasing nano-structures can be predicted by the discussed growth model. A possible expansion of this common valid concept is presented by the utilization of organic-organic heteroepitaxy. Based on the reported p-6P/6T heterostructures which have been fabricated on various substrate surfaces, it is substantiated that the fabrication of organic-organic interfaces can be effectively used to gain control on the molecular adsorption geometry. As the proposed strategy still lacks a precise control of the obtained crystal contact plane, further strategies are discussed which potentially lead to a controlled fabrication of opto-electronic devices based on self-assembled organic nano-structures.