Crystal structure, defects and plasticity in pentacene thin films

Pentacene is a crystalline organic molecular material currently under investigation for use as the active layer in all-organic flexible electronic devices. For pentacene and materials like it to be developed and integrated into useful devices, a greater understanding of their growth, crystal structure, defects and mechanical behavior in the thin film form must be obtained. Low-dose High Resolution Electron Microscopy (HREM) was used to image pentacene structure and defects with lattice resolution. A new technique, Low Voltage Electron Microscopy (LVEM), was used to characterize pentacene and other organic thin films with high contrast. Pentacene thin films were produced by vacuum sublimation onto various crystalline and amorphous substrates. The crystal structure and morphology of the films were characterized using microscopy and diffraction techniques, and a new orthorhombic crystal structure was found in very thin films. Although the bulk energy of this orthorhombic phase is higher than the pentacene triclinic phase, it is thermodynamically stable at low film thickness because of its low (001) surface energy. Single crystal growth of the triclinic phase was studied by complementing molecular mechanics simulations of surface energies with experimental images of pentacene films. Details of the structural relaxations near defects in pentacene thin films were investigated using HREM and Electron Diffraction (ED). Characteristic streaking in ED patterns gave evidence for anisotropic relaxations near molecular vacancies. Direct images of grain boundaries in the as-grown films gave insight into molecular reorganization under internal strain. Finally, the plasticity of pentacene was investigated by rubbing, scratching and nanoindentation. Alignment of the thermally evaporated films was achieved under a controlled load scratch. Evidence for single crystalline texturing inside the scratched region was seen using HREM, with the contact plane being {lcub}110{rcub} type. Nanoindentation was used to investigate the mechanical response of the films and to quantify the amount of plastic deformation at a given indentation load and loading rate. A pronounced loading rate effect was seen in the data, with the apparent hardness increasing from ∼0.1 GPa at a rate of 0.015 mN/s to ∼0.5 GPa at a rate of 0.7 mN/s.