The results of a study of the unoccupied electronic states of ultrathin films of bis-carboxyphenyl-phthalide (DCA-DPP) and bis-methylphenyl-phthalide (DM-DPP) up to 8 nm thick are presented. The studies were carried out by total current spectroscopy (TCS) technique in the energy range from 5 eV to 20 eV above EF during thermal vacuum deposition of these organic films on the surface of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). The energy Evac relative to EF, that is, the electronic work function of the DM-DPP films, at a film thickness of 5–8 nm was 4.3 ± 0.1 eV. The electronic work function of the DCA-DPP films was 3.7 ± 0.1 eV. The structure of the maxima of the unoccupied electronic states of DCA-DPP films and DM-DPP films in the studied energy range is determined. The properties determined of DCA-DPP and DM-DPP films are compared with the properties of films of unsubstituted diphenylphthalide (DPP). According to our analysis, –CH3 substitution of the DPP molecule practically did not affect the height of the potential barrier between the film and the HOPG surface, and –COOH substitution of the DPP molecule led to an increase in the height of the potential barrier between the film and the HOPG substrate surface by 0.5–0.6 eV. Substitution of DPP molecules with –COOH functional groups which represents formation of DCA-DPP molecules led to a shift of two peaks of the experimental total current spectra located at energies in the range from 5 eV to 8 eV above EF, by about 1 eV towards lower electron energies.
The atomic composition of films of a polyphenol antioxidant, namely, resveratrol (RVL), with a thickness of up to 50 nm thermally deposited on an oxidized silicon surface is studied by the method of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It is found that the surface area of pores in the RVL film is about 15% of the total surface area. The results of studying the stability of the RVL films when their surface is treated with Ar^+ ions of 3 keV under the electric current of 1 μA passing through the sample for 30 s are given. The treatment gives rise to an increase in the area of pores to 30–40%, while the ratio of the concentration of C atoms to the concentration of O atoms in the RVL film both before and after the treatment of the surface with ions does not correspond to the chemical formula of RVL molecules. Using the method of atomic force microscopy (AFM) in contact mode with a scanning area size of about 10 × 10 μm, RVL coatings deposited on the oxidized silicon and polycrystalline Au surfaces are studied. It is found that the RVL films produce grainy and porous coatings on the substrate surfaces. The typical size of grains in the sample surface plane is 150–300 nm, and the characteristic elevation reaches 30 nm.
The results of the study of the formation of unoccupied electronic states and of the interface potential barrier during thermal deposition of tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) films, up to 7 nm thick, on the (SiO2)n-Si surface are presented. The electronic properties of the surface under study were determined using the total current spectroscopy (TCS) technique and as testing electron beam with energies in the range from 5 eV to 20 eV above the Fermi level. The formation of a potential barrier in the (SiO2)n-Si / TCNQ structure was accompanied by an increase in the surface work function from 4.2 ± 0.1 eV to 4.7 ± 0.1 eV. Based on the results of TCS experiments, the DOUS function of the studied TCNQ film is constructed. To analyze the experimental DOUS, the orbital energies of the studied TCNQ molecules were calculated using the density functional theory (DFT) method at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level, which was followed by the correction procedure and by the allowance for the condensed phase polarization energy. DOUS of the TCNQ films has four main maxima in the energy range studied. The DOUS maximum at an energy of 7.0 eV above EF is mainly formed by pi* orbitals. Three DOUS maxima located in the energy range from 8.0 eV to 20 eV above EF are formed by approximately the same number of pi* and sigma* type orbitals.
The results of a study of unoccupied electronic states and the formation of a boundary potential barrier during thermal vacuum deposition of ultrathin films of 4-quaterphenyl oligophenylene on the surface of CdS and on the surface of oxidized silicon are presented. Using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) it was determined, that the atomic concentrations of Cd and S were equal in the surface layer of a 75-nm-thick CdS film formed by atomic layer deposition (ALD). The electronic properties of 4-quaterphenyl films up to 8 nm thick were studied during their deposition on the surface of the CdS layer and on the surface of oxidized silicon using total current spectroscopy (TCS) in the energy range from 5 eV to 20 eV above EF. The energetic position of the main maxima of the fine structure of the total current spectra (FSTCS) of 4-quaterphenyl films was determined. The location of the maxima was reproducible when two selected substrate materials were used. A minor decrease in the work function, from 4.2 eV to 4.1 eV, was registered during the thermal deposition of 4-quaterphenyl onto the CdS surface. During the deposition of a 4-quaterphenyl film on the oxidized silicon surface, an increase in the work function from 4.2 eV to 4.5 eV was found. Possible mechanisms of the physicochemical interaction between the 4-quaterphenyl film and the surface of the investigated substrates, which lead to a difference in the observed values of the work function of the films on these substrates, are discussed.
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