Organic/Metal Interfaces: Electronic and Structural Properties

This work addresses several important topics of the field of organic electronics. The focus lies on organic/metal interfaces, which exist in all organic electronic devices. Physical properties of such interfaces are crucial for device performance. Four main topics have been covered: (i) the impact of molecular orientation on the energy levels, (ii) energy level tuning with strong electron acceptors, (iii) the role of thermodynamic equilibrium at organic/organic homo-interfaces and (iv) the correlation of interfacial electronic structure and bonding distance. To address these issues a broad experimental approach was necessary: mainly ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy was used, supported by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, metastable atom electron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray standing waves, to examine vacuum sublimed thin films of conjugated organic molecules (COMs) in ultrahigh vacuum. (i) A novel approach is presented to explain the phenomenon that the ionization energy in molecular assemblies is orientation dependent. It is demonstrated that this is due to a macroscopic impact of intramolecular dipoles on the ionization energy in molecular assemblies. Furthermore, the correlation of molecular orientation and conformation has been studied in detail for COMs on various substrates. (ii) A new approach was developed to tune hole injection barriers (∆h) at organic/metal interfaces by adsorbing a (sub-) monolayer of an organic electron acceptor on the metal electrode. Charge transfer from the metal to the acceptor leads to a chemisorbed layer, which reduces ∆h to the COM overlayer. This concept was tested with three acceptors and a lowering of ∆h of up to 1.2 eV could be observed. (iii) A transition from vacuum-level alignment to molecular level pinning at the homo-interface between a lying monolayer and standing multilayers of a COM was observed, which depended on the amount of a pre-deposited acceptor. The measured shift in the vacuum level between monolayer and multilayer coverage was direct evidence for thermodynamically driven charge transfer between molecular layers. (iv) A clear correlation between the strength of chemical bonding of COMs and the bonding distance to metal substrates could be shown. All these findings lead to a better understanding of organic/metal interface physics and may help to enhance performance of organic devices in the future.