Annealing Behavior with Thickness Hindered Nucleation in Small-Molecule Organic Semiconductor Thin Films

Jakub Rozbořil, Katharina Broch, Roland Resel, Ondřej Caha, Filip Münz, Petr Mikulík, John E. Anthony, Henning Sirringhaus, Jiří Novák

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

We introduce a comprehensive overview of spontaneous and thermal induced structure changes in thin films of the high performance small-molecular organic semiconductor 5,11-bis(triethyl silylethynyl) anthradithiophene (TES-ADT). Most importantly, we find that nucleation of the TES-ADT high temperature β phase can be induced only for films thicker than a critical thickness, while it is hindered for thinner films. The described limited crystal phase nucleation, the circumstances of which are unique in the realm of small-molecule organic semiconductors, is explained in terms of a two step nucleation mechanism while taking into account the anisotropic surface energy of crystal grains. Furthermore, we identify changes in the optical absorption spectra observed during aging of as deposited films with a spontaneous transformation from the amorphous phase to the α2 phase via the α1 phase of TES-ADT. The transformation takes place on the time scale of several days. Finally, we determine temperature dependence of lattice parameters of the α1 and α2 phases and the lattice parameters of the β phase. Thermal expansion of the α1 phase is found to be much lower than that of the α2 phase.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3777-3784
Number of pages8
JournalCrystal Growth and Design
Volume19
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 7 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Chemical Society.

Funding

This work was supported by by MEYS CEITEC 2020 project (grant no. LQ1601) and CEITEC Nano Research Infrastructure (ID LM2015041, MEYS CR, 2016–2019).

FundersFunder number
Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a TělovýchovyLQ1601
Central European Institute of TechnologyLM2015041

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Chemistry
    • General Materials Science
    • Condensed Matter Physics

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