Controlling the growth of multiple ordered heteromolecular phases by utilizing intermolecular repulsion

Metal/organic interfaces and their structural, electronic, spintronic and thermodynamic properties have been investigated intensively, aiming to improve and develop future electronic devices. In this context, heteromolecular phases add new design opportunities simply by combining different molecules...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature materials 2017-06, Vol.16 (6), p.628-633
Main Authors: Henneke, Caroline, Felter, Janina, Schwarz, Daniel, Stefan Tautz, F., Kumpf, Christian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/638/440
639/925/357
Adsorbates
Binary systems
Biomaterials
Complex systems
Condensed Matter Physics
Control systems
Crystal structure
Density
Electronic devices
Eutectic temperature
Materials Science
Molecular biology
Nanotechnology
Optical and Electronic Materials
Phase transitions
Steering
System effectiveness
Thermodynamic properties
Vapor phases
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Summary:Metal/organic interfaces and their structural, electronic, spintronic and thermodynamic properties have been investigated intensively, aiming to improve and develop future electronic devices. In this context, heteromolecular phases add new design opportunities simply by combining different molecules. However, controlling the desired phases in such complex systems is a challenging task. Here, we report an effective way of steering the growth of a bimolecular system composed of adsorbate species with opposite intermolecular interactions—repulsive and attractive, respectively. The repulsive species forms a two-dimensional lattice gas, the density of which controls which crystalline phases are stable. Critical gas phase densities determine the constant-area phase diagram that describes our experimental observations, including eutectic regions with three coexisting phases. We anticipate the general validity of this type of phase diagram for binary systems containing two-dimensional gas phases, and also show that the density of the gas phase allows engineering of the interface structure. It is now shown that the phase of heteromolecular submonolayer films formed by adsorbates with opposite intermolecular interactions can be controlled by tuning the density of the gas phase of the species with repulsive character.
ISSN:1476-1122
1476-4660
DOI:10.1038/nmat4858