It has been shown recently, that organic nanofibers grown from para-hexaphenyl and from α-sexithiophene molecules can be used as a new type of nanoscopic waveguides. Their growth is due to a self-assembly process, thus large quantities of aligned nanofibers can be fabricated simultaneously. Because of the growth mechanism of the nanofibers, their widths and heights are limited to a few 100 nm and a few 10 nm, respectively. In this paper we show how this kind of control has been obtained via modification of the bare muscovite surface before organic molecule deposition. Introducing e.g. a thin layer of Au islands before nanofiber growth results in an up to 15-fold increase in height, whereas the mean width and the optical properties of the fibers remain almost unchanged. Au films of varying thickness lead to tailor-made height profiles along the fiber. Using atomic force microscopy the details of these Au/organic heterostructures are examined and the growth is compared to growth on untreated mica. By scratching the fibers with an AFM tip grating structures have been written into the fibers.

Date Published: 23 February 2006
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 6117, Organic Photonic Materials and Devices VIII, 61170E (23 February 2006); doi: 10.1117/12.645703

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6117:
Organic Photonic Materials and Devices VIII
James G. Grote; Francois Kajzar; Nakjoong Kim, Editor(s)