Morphology of Metal-Containing Films Deposited by Pulsed Laser Vaporization onto Supported Organic Monolayers. Joshua Van Vranken and Alonzo Martinez

Abstract

The topographic characteristics of metal-containing films deposited onto self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) will be investigated as a probe of the metal-organic interface. The second harmonic (532 nm) of a pulsed Nd:YAG laser is directed onto a rotating and translating metallic (silver) target located in a diffusion-pumped, high vacuum system. The silver is vaporized and deposited onto the dodecanethiol film, a SAM that is formed by chemisorbing to an annealed gold ball. A quartz crystal microbalance provides a measure of film coverage. A silver-dodecanethiol interface will be studied via Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), which provides a topographic map of the surface. This map yields the morphology of the metal layer as well as the atomic resolution necessary to understand the nature of the interaction between the metallic film and the organic SAM. In order determine how the SAM surface affects the deposited layers various terminal functional groups of the SAM will be prepared for pulsed laser deposition.