Tailoring the Optical Response of Pentacene Thin Films via Templated Growth on Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Samuel H. Amsterdam; Trevor Lamountain; Teodor K. Stanev; Vinod K. Sangwan; Rafael López-Arteaga; Suyog Padgaonkar; Kenji Watanabe; Takashi Taniguchi; Emily A. Weiss; Tobin J. Marks; Mark C. Hersam; Nathaniel P. Stern

doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c03132

Tailoring the Optical Response of Pentacene Thin Films via Templated Growth on Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Samuel H. Amsterdam, Trevor Lamountain, Teodor K. Stanev, Vinod K. Sangwan, Rafael López-Arteaga, Suyog Padgaonkar, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Emily A. Weiss, Tobin J. Marks^*, Mark C. Hersam, Nathaniel P. Stern

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

The optoelectronic properties of organic thin films are strongly dependent on their molecular orientation and packing, which in turn is sensitive to the underlying substrate. Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and other van der Waals (vdW) materials are known to template different organic thin film growth modalities from conventional inorganic substrates such as SiO2. Here, the morphology and temperature-dependent optical properties of pentacene films grown on hBN are reported. Pentacene deposited on hBN forms large-grain films with a molecular π-face-on orientation unlike the dendritic edge-on thin-film phase on SiO2. Pentacene/hBN films exhibit a 40 meV lower free exciton emission than pentacene/SiO2 and an unconventional emission energy temperature dependence. Time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) decay measurements show a long-lived signal in the π-face-on phase related to delayed emission from triplet-triplet fusion. This work demonstrates that growth on vdW materials provides a pathway for controlling optoelectronic functionality in molecular thin films.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	26-31
Number of pages	6
Journal	Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
Volume	12
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c03132
State	Published - Jan 14 2021

Funding

This work was primarily supported by the National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at Northwestern University (DMR-1720139). T.K.S., T.L., and N.P.S. acknowledge support from the Office of Naval Research under Grant N00014-16-1-3055. K.W. and T.T. acknowledge support from the Elemental Strategy Initiative conducted by the MEXT, Japan, Grant JPMXP0112101001, JSPS KAKENHI Grant JP20H00354, and the CREST(JPMJCR15F3), JST. This work made use of the NUFAB facility of Northwestern University’s NUANCE Center, which has received support from the SHyNE Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205), the IIN, and Northwestern’s MRSEC program (NSF DMR-1720139). S.H.A. acknowledges support from the Department of Defense (DoD) through the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG) Program.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Materials Science
Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

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Amsterdam, S. H., Lamountain, T., Stanev, T. K., Sangwan, V. K., López-Arteaga, R., Padgaonkar, S., Watanabe, K., Taniguchi, T., Weiss, E. A., Marks, T. J., Hersam, M. C., & Stern, N. P. (2021). Tailoring the Optical Response of Pentacene Thin Films via Templated Growth on Hexagonal Boron Nitride. Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 12(1), 26-31. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c03132

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title = "Tailoring the Optical Response of Pentacene Thin Films via Templated Growth on Hexagonal Boron Nitride",

abstract = "The optoelectronic properties of organic thin films are strongly dependent on their molecular orientation and packing, which in turn is sensitive to the underlying substrate. Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and other van der Waals (vdW) materials are known to template different organic thin film growth modalities from conventional inorganic substrates such as SiO2. Here, the morphology and temperature-dependent optical properties of pentacene films grown on hBN are reported. Pentacene deposited on hBN forms large-grain films with a molecular π-face-on orientation unlike the dendritic edge-on thin-film phase on SiO2. Pentacene/hBN films exhibit a 40 meV lower free exciton emission than pentacene/SiO2 and an unconventional emission energy temperature dependence. Time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) decay measurements show a long-lived signal in the π-face-on phase related to delayed emission from triplet-triplet fusion. This work demonstrates that growth on vdW materials provides a pathway for controlling optoelectronic functionality in molecular thin films.",

author = "Amsterdam, {Samuel H.} and Trevor Lamountain and Stanev, {Teodor K.} and Sangwan, {Vinod K.} and Rafael L{\'o}pez-Arteaga and Suyog Padgaonkar and Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi and Weiss, {Emily A.} and Marks, {Tobin J.} and Hersam, {Mark C.} and Stern, {Nathaniel P.}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} ",

year = "2021",

month = jan,

day = "14",

doi = "10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c03132",

language = "English (US)",

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Amsterdam, SH, Lamountain, T, Stanev, TK, Sangwan, VK, López-Arteaga, R, Padgaonkar, S, Watanabe, K, Taniguchi, T, Weiss, EA, Marks, TJ , Hersam, MC & Stern, NP 2021, 'Tailoring the Optical Response of Pentacene Thin Films via Templated Growth on Hexagonal Boron Nitride', Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 26-31. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c03132

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AU - Amsterdam, Samuel H.

AU - Lamountain, Trevor

AU - Stanev, Teodor K.

AU - Sangwan, Vinod K.

AU - López-Arteaga, Rafael

AU - Padgaonkar, Suyog

AU - Watanabe, Kenji

AU - Taniguchi, Takashi

AU - Weiss, Emily A.

AU - Marks, Tobin J.

AU - Hersam, Mark C.

AU - Stern, Nathaniel P.

PY - 2021/1/14

Y1 - 2021/1/14

N2 - The optoelectronic properties of organic thin films are strongly dependent on their molecular orientation and packing, which in turn is sensitive to the underlying substrate. Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and other van der Waals (vdW) materials are known to template different organic thin film growth modalities from conventional inorganic substrates such as SiO2. Here, the morphology and temperature-dependent optical properties of pentacene films grown on hBN are reported. Pentacene deposited on hBN forms large-grain films with a molecular π-face-on orientation unlike the dendritic edge-on thin-film phase on SiO2. Pentacene/hBN films exhibit a 40 meV lower free exciton emission than pentacene/SiO2 and an unconventional emission energy temperature dependence. Time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) decay measurements show a long-lived signal in the π-face-on phase related to delayed emission from triplet-triplet fusion. This work demonstrates that growth on vdW materials provides a pathway for controlling optoelectronic functionality in molecular thin films.

AB - The optoelectronic properties of organic thin films are strongly dependent on their molecular orientation and packing, which in turn is sensitive to the underlying substrate. Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and other van der Waals (vdW) materials are known to template different organic thin film growth modalities from conventional inorganic substrates such as SiO2. Here, the morphology and temperature-dependent optical properties of pentacene films grown on hBN are reported. Pentacene deposited on hBN forms large-grain films with a molecular π-face-on orientation unlike the dendritic edge-on thin-film phase on SiO2. Pentacene/hBN films exhibit a 40 meV lower free exciton emission than pentacene/SiO2 and an unconventional emission energy temperature dependence. Time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) decay measurements show a long-lived signal in the π-face-on phase related to delayed emission from triplet-triplet fusion. This work demonstrates that growth on vdW materials provides a pathway for controlling optoelectronic functionality in molecular thin films.

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Tailoring the Optical Response of Pentacene Thin Films via Templated Growth on Hexagonal Boron Nitride

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