Morphology and growth kinetics of organic thin films deposited by hot wall epitaxy

In this work we have used atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction by synchrotron radiation to investigate the growth kinetics and morphology of para-sexiphenyl layers. The results of our investigations can be summarized as follows: (a) para-sexiphenyl grows on mica epitaxialy; (b) a rearrangement from randomly distributed small para-sexiphenyl islands with compact shape to elongated islands occurs during the growth if the critical island density is reached; (c) with further increase of the growth time the islands become elongated, quickly reaching a fixed asymptotic width while their height remains much smaller than their length and width. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.