Thin film morphology control by mechanical, electronic and chemical interactions: a scanning tunneling microscopy and photoelectron spectroscopy study

Thin film growth technology develops rapidly with the requirement of understanding the mechanical and electronic interaction and how they will control the Morphology of the film. Self-assembly of the organic molecules on metal substrate provide a bottom-up path toward building up desires conformation for nanotechnology application. In this study, STM and Photoelectron Spectroscopy have been used to investigate monolayer or sub-monolayer thin film grown on Cu(111) substrate. To be more specific, The films I investigate are monolayer MoS2 formed by strong covalent bonding between Mo and S atoms, Anthracene thin film formed by weak van der Waals interaction and Anthraquinone (AQ) honeycomb network form by hydrogen bonding and other long range surface mediated interaction. My research interest is using STM, XPS and ARUPS to investigate what is the role of these interactions during the growth of the thin film and how to control the film morphology by controlling these interactions.