The surface microstructure controlled growth of organic nanofibres

A combination of top down fabrication of microstructured growth templates and bottom up growth of oriented organic nanofibres is demonstrated. At appropriate surface temperatures blue light emitting para-hexaphenylene nanofibres are grown on gold coated silicon substrates, perpendicularly oriented to the edges of micron-sized ridges. These nanofibres have well-defined maximum lengths of a few micrometres and typical heights and widths of around a hundred and a few hundred nanometres, respectively. Previously such oriented growth has been reported solely on specific, single-crystalline growth substrates. The present finding opens up a route to direct growth of oriented organic nanofibres on microstructured substrates that can act as device platforms.