Morphological and Structural Investigation of Sexithiophene Growth on KCl (100)

The morphology and structure of sexithiophene deposited on KCl (100) substrates was investigated by scanning force microscopy and specular X-ray diffraction measurements. Two different needle-like structures with {010} and {4̅11} contact planes have been observed as well as islands of almost upright standing sexithiophene molecules with a {100} contact plane. Furthermore an azimuthal alignment of all three crystal orientations was observed by X-ray diffraction pole figure measurements, and the growth directions reflect the 4-fold rotational symmetry of the substrate surface. In addition the analysis of crystals with {4̅11} and {100} contact planes unveiled that they share a common crystallographic direction which is explained by ledge directed epitaxy.