Controlling molecular order in "hairy-rod" langmuir-blodgett films: a polarization-modulation microscopy study

The interplay of molecular weight, layer thickness, and thermal annealing in controlling molecular order in ultrathin Langmuir-Blodgett films is characterized with the use of polarization-modulation laser-scanning microscopy. The degree and direction of molecular alignment can be imaged rapidly and sensitively through the magnitude and orientation of linear dichroism in Langmuir-Blodgett films of rodlike poly(phthalocyaninatosiloxane) (PcPS). Images are presented for films as thin as two molecular layers ( approximately 44 angstroms). Molecular alignment along the transfer direction is much stronger for films of PcPS with approximately 25 repeat units ( approximately 10 nanometers long) than for those with approximately 50 repeat units ( approximately 20 nanometers long). Enhancement of alignment by thermal annealing is also much greater for PcPS-25 than PcPS-50. Intimate interaction with the substrate suppresses improvement in alignment by annealing, evident by an anomalously small increase in anisotropic absorption of the first two layers.