Comparison of organic thin films deposited by supersonic molecular-beam epitaxy and organic molecular-beam epitaxy: The case of titanyl phthalocyanine

Recently, supersonic molecular-beam epitaxy (SuMBE) was invented as an alternative method for the deposition of organic material, using higher kinetic energies for deposition than conventional organic molecular-beam epitaxy (OMBE). Using titanyl phthalocyanine (TiOPc) as a model substance, we show that the SuMBE deposition results in increased crystal quality of the deposited material. This is induced by the high kinetic energy of the molecular-beam in SuMBE, which leads to increased molecular mobility on the surface, resulting in larger crystal sizes and higher crystal quality. Alternatively, similar films as made by OMBE can be deposited by SuMBE at lower substrate temperatures. This temperature reduction may be of interest for the deposition of stacked organic devices on underlying heat sensitive layers, as they are quite common in organic electronic devices.