Highly ordered films of quaterthiophene grown by seeded supersonic beams

Abstract

Seeded supersonic beams of oligothiophenes have been developed and used to grow very high quality films on CaF2 and SiO2. Optical characterizations show features previously observed only on single crystals and very thin films. In particular, the vibronic progression of the 0–0 transition is well resolved at 10 K. Highly supersonic beams give best results. High quality films are produced over a range of thicknesses ⩾500 nm. The correlation between properties of the films and beam parameters are discussed. The energy state of oligomers is envisaged to play a key role in the growth.