In-plane orientation control of 2,7-diphenyl[1]benzothieno[3,2-][1]benzothiophene monolayer on bismuth-terminated Si(111) vicinal surfaces with wettability optimization

Otomo, Manabu; Tsuchida, Yuya*; Muraya, Naoki*; Yanase, Takashi*; Sakai, Seiji; Yonezawa, Tetsu*; Nagahama, Taro*; Hasegawa, Tetsuya*; Shimada, Toshihiro*

Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 117(22), p.11555 - 11561, 2013/06

https://doi.org/10.1021/jp3117837

We report in-plane orientation control of newly developed high-mobility organic semiconductor: 2,7-diphenyl[1]benzothieno[3,2-][1]benzothiophene (DPh-BTBT). As previously reported on monolayer pentacene, it was revealed that bunched steps on vicinal Si(111) with bismuth termination break the surface symmetry and reduce three-fold symmetry of DPh-BTBT grains into quasi-single orientation. Interestingly, the critical step height necessary for the orientation control was different from that of pentacene. We examined several mechanisms of orientation control and concluded that the facet nano structure fabricated by step bunching is working as an anisotropic template. We will also show the wettability control of bismuth terminated silicon surface and show that the growth mode of DPh-BTBT is dependent on the surface nanostructure of Bi-Si.