| Understanding and controlling the interaction of metals and semiconductors with organic substrates is critical to many technologies. The primary goal of the research described in this dissertation is to investigate the reaction pathways involved in the formation of metallic and semiconducting contacts on organic substrates.;Alkanethiolate self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) adsorbed on Au, which have highly organized structures with a uniform density of terminal functional groups, are employed as a model system in our studies. Methods to form stable metallic (nickel, aluminum) and semiconducting (ZnS, ZnO) contacts on functionalized alkanethiolate SAMs are developed and the reaction pathways involved are investigated in detail using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF SIMS), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron spectroscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and x-ray diffraction (XRD). Selective growth of the metal and semiconductor films on functionalized alkanethiolate SAMs is also demonstrated. Finally, a simple, widely applicable method to form metallic nanowires of arbitrary shape and length on patterned alkanethiolate SAMs has been demonstrated. |
