Molecular orientation of lead phthalocyanine on (100) oriented single crystal diamond surfaces

Lead phthalocyanine (PbPc) thin films of 5 and 50 nm have been deposited on hydrogen and oxygen terminated single crystal diamond (SCD) using organic molecular beam deposition. Atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies showed that PbPc grown on the hydrogen terminated SCD forms layers with a high degree of crystallinity, dominated by the monoclinic (320) orientation parallel to the diamond surface. The oxygen terminated diamond led to a randomly oriented PbPc film. Absorption and photocurrent measurements indicated the presence of both polymorphs of PbPc, however, the ratio differed depending on the termination of the SCD. Finally, polarized Raman spectroscopy was used to determine the orientation of the molecules of the thin film. The results confirmed the random orientation on the O-terminated diamond. On SCD:H, the PbPc molecules are lying down in accordance with the XRD results.