Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Angle- and time-resolved two-photon photoemission (2PPE) was used to study systems of organic semiconductors on Ag(111). The 2PPE studies focused on electronic behavior specific to interfaces and ultrathin films. Electron time dynamics and band dispersions were characterized for ultrathin films of a prototypical n-type planar aromatic hydrocarbon, PTCDA, and representatives from a family of p-type oligothiophenes. In PTCDA, electronic behavior was correlated with film morphology and growth modes. Within a few monolayers of the interface, image potential states and a LUMO+1 state were detected. The degree to which the LUMO+1 state exhibited a band mass less than a free electron mass depended on the crystallinity of the layer. Similarly, image potential states were measured to have free electron-like effective masses on ordered surfaces, and the effective masses increased with disorder within the thin film. Electron lifetimes were correlated with film growth modes, such that the lifetimes of electrons excited into systems created by layer-by-layer, amorphous film growth increased by orders of magnitude by only a few monolayers from the surface. Conversely, the decay dynamics of electrons in Stranski-Krastanov systems were limited by interaction with the exposed wetting layer, which limited the barrier to decay back into the metal. Oligothiophenes including monothiophene, quaterthiophene, and sexithiophene were deposited on Ag(111), and their electronic energy levels and effective masses were studied as a function of oligothiophene length. The energy gap between HOMO and LUMO decreased with increasing chain length, but effective mass was found to depend on domains from high- or low-temperature growth conditions rather than chain length. In addition, the geometry of the molecule on the surface, e.g., tilted or planar, substantially affected the electronic structure.