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Two-Dimensional Electron Systems at Surfaces — Spin-Orbit Interaction and Electronic Correlations
(2012)
This thesis addresses three different realizations of a truly two-dimensional electron system (2DES), established at the surface of elemental semiconductors, i.e., Pt/Si(111), Au/Ge(111), and Sn/Si(111). Characteristic features of atomic structures at surfaces have been studied using scanning tunneling microscopy and low energy electron diffraction with special emphasis on Pt deposition onto Si(111). Topographic inspection reveals that Pt atoms agglomerate as trimers, which represent the structural building block of phase-slip domains. Surprisingly, each trimer is rotated by 30° with respect to the substrate, which results in an unexpected symmetry breaking. In turn, this represents a unique example of a chiral structure at a semiconductor surface, and marks Pt/Si(111) as a promising candidate for catalytic processes at the atomic scale. Spin-orbit interactions (SOIs) play a significant role at surfaces involving heavy adatoms. As a result, a lift of the spin degeneracy in the electronic states, termed as Rashba effect, may be observed. A candidate system to exhibit such physics is Au/Ge(111). Its large hexagonal Fermi sheet is suggested to be spin-split by calculations within the density functional theory. Experimental clarification is obtained by exploiting the unique capabilities of three-dimensional spin detection in spin- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. Besides verification of the spin splitting, the in-plane components of the spin are shown to possess helical character, while also a prominent rotation out of this plane is observed along straight sections of the Fermi surface. Surprisingly and for the first time in a 2DES, additional in-plane rotations of the spin are revealed close to high symmetry directions. This complex spin pattern must originate from crystalline anisotropies, and it is best described by augmenting the original Rashba model with higher order Dresselhaus-like SOI terms. The alternative use of group-IV adatoms at a significantly reduced coverage drastically changes the basic properties of a 2DES. Electron localization is strongly enhanced, and the ground state characteristics will be dominated by correlation effects then. Sn/Si(111) is scrutinized with this regard. It serves as an ideal realization of a triangular lattice, that inherently suffers from spin frustration. Consequently, long-range magnetic order is prohibited, and the ground state is assumed to be either a spiral antiferromagnetic (AFM) insulator or a spin liquid. Here, the single-particle spectral function is utilized as a fundamental quantity to address the complex interplay of geometric frustration and electronic correlations. In particular, this is achieved by combining the complementary strengths of ab initio local density approximation (LDA) calculations, state-of-the-art angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy, and the sophisticated many-body LDA+DCA. In this way, the evolution of a shadow band and a band backfolding incompatible with a spiral AFM order are unveiled. Moreover, beyond nearest-neighbor hopping processes are crucial here, and the spectral features must be attributed to a collinear AFM ground state, contrary to common expectation for a frustrated spin lattice.
Oxide heterostructures attract a lot of attention as they display a vast range of physical phenomena like conductivity, magnetism, or even superconductivity. In most cases, these effects are caused by electron correlations and are therefore interesting for studying fundamental physics, but also in view of future applications. This thesis deals with the growth and characterization of several prototypical oxide heterostructures. Fe3O4 is highly ranked as a possible spin electrode in the field of spintronics. A suitable semiconductor for spin injection in combination with Fe3O4 is ZnO due to its oxide character and a sufficiently long spin coherence length. Fe3O4 has been grown successfully on ZnO using pulsed laser deposition and molecular beam epitaxy by choosing the oxygen partial pressure adequately. Here, a pressure variation during growth reduces an FeO-like interface layer. Fe3O4 films grow in an island-like growth mode and are structurally nearly fully relaxed, exhibiting the same lattice constants as the bulk materials. Despite the presence of a slight oxygen off-stoichiometry, indications of the Verwey transition hint at high-quality film properties. The overall magnetization of the films is reduced compared to bulk Fe3O4 and a slow magnetization behavior is observed, most probably due to defects like anti-phase boundaries originating from the initial island growth. LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures exhibit a conducting interface above a critical film thickness, which is most likely explained by an electronic reconstruction. In the corresponding model, the potential built-up owing to the polar LaAlO3 overlayer is compensated by a charge transfer from the film surface to the interface. The properties of these heterostructures strongly depend on the growth parameters. It is shown for the first time, that it is mainly the total pressure which determines the macroscopic sample properties, while it is the oxygen partial pressure which controls the amount of charge carriers near the interface. Oxygen-vacancy-mediated conductivity is found for too low oxygen pressures. A too high total pressure, however, destroys interface conductivity, most probably due to a change of the growth kinetics. Post-oxidation leads to a metastable state removing the arbitrariness in controlling the electronic interface properties by the oxygen pressure during growth. LaVO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures exhibit similar behavior compared to LaAlO3/SrTiO3 when it comes to a thickness-dependent metal-insulator transition. But in contrast to LaAlO3, LaVO3 is a Mott insulator exhibiting strong electron correlations. Films have been grown by pulsed laser deposition. Layer-by-layer growth and a phase-pure pervoskite lattice structure is observed, indicating good structural quality of the film and the interface. An electron-rich layer is found near the interface on the LaVO3 side for conducting LaVO3/SrTiO3. This could be explained by an electronic reconstruction within the film. The electrostatic doping results in a band-filling-controlled metal-insulator transition without suffering from chemical impurities, which is unavoidable in conventional doping experiments.
The present thesis deals with surface treatment, material improvement, and the electronic structure of the diluted magnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As. The two key issues are the preparation of clean surfaces and the observation of potential valence hybridizations in (Ga,Mn)As by means of photoemission spectroscopy. Several cleaning methods are applied individually to (Ga,Mn)As and their e ects are compared in detail by various methods. Based on the results of each method, a sophisticated recipe has been elaborated, which provides clean, stoichiometric, and reconstructed surfaces, even if the sample was exposed to air prior to preparation. Moreover, the recipe works equally well for intentionally oxidized surfaces. The individual advantages of ex-situ wet- chemical etching and in situ ion-milling and tempering can be combined in an unique way. In regard to the post-growth annealing in order to optimize the electronic and magnetic properties of (Ga,Mn)As, the effect of surface segregation of interstitial Mn was quantifed. It turns out that the Mn concentration at the surface increases by a factor 4.3 after annealing at 190 C for 150 h. The removal of the segregated and oxidized species by wet-chemical etching allows a tentative estimate of the content of interstitial Mn. 19-23% of the overall Mn content in as-grown samples resides on interstitial positions. The complementary results of core level photoemission spectroscopy and resonant photoemission spectroscopy give hints to the fact that a sizeable valence hybridization of Mn is present in (Ga,Mn)As. This outlines that the simple Mn 3d5-con guration is too naive to refect the true electronic structure of substitutional Mn in (Ga,Mn)As. Great similarities in the core level spectra are found to MnAs. The bonding is thus dominantly of covalent, not ionic, character. Transport measurements, in particular for very low temperatures (<10 K), are in agreement with previous results. This shows that at low temperature, the conduction is mainly governed by variable-range hopping which is in line with the presence of an impurity band formed by substitutional Mn. In the light of the presented results, it is therefore concluded that a double-exchange interaction is the dominant mechanism leading to ferromagnetic coupling in (Ga,Mn)As. The valence hybridization and the presents of an impurity band, both of which are inherent properties of substitutional Mn, are indications for a double-exchange scenario, being at variance to a RKKY-based explanation. Contributions from a RKKY-like mechanism cannot definitely be excluded, however, they are not dominant.
Transition metal oxides (TMO) represent a highly interesting material class as
they exhibit a variety of different emergent phenomena including multiferroicity and
superconductivity. These effects result from a significant interplay of charge, spin
and orbital degrees of freedom within the correlated d-electrons. Oxygen vacancies
(OV) at the surface of certain d0 TMO release free charge carriers and prompt the
formation of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). Barium titanate (BaTiO3) is a
prototypical and promising d0 TMO. It displays ferroelectricity at room temperature
and features several structural phase transitions, from cubic over tetragonal (at
room temperature) and orthorhombic to rhombohedral. The spontaneous electric
polarization in BaTiO3 can be used to manipulate the physical properties of adjacent
materials, e.g. in thin films. Although the macroscopic properties of BaTiO3 are studied
in great detail, the microscopic electronic structure at the surface and interface of
BaTiO3 is not sufficiently understood yet due to the complex interplay of correlation
within the d states, oxygen vacancies at the surface, ferroelectricity in the bulk and
the structural phase transitions in BaTiO3.
This thesis investigates the electronic structure of different BaTiO3 systems by
means of angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES). The valence band of
BaTiO3 single crystals is systematically characterized and compared to theoretical
band structure calculations. A finite p-d hybridization of titanium and oxygen states
was inferred at the high binding energy side of the valence band. In BaTiO3 thin films,
the occurrence of spectral weight near the Fermi level could be linked to a certain
amount of OV at the surface which effectively dopes the host system. By a systematic
study of the metallic surface states as a function of temperature and partial oxygen
pressure, a model was established which reflects the depletion and accumulation of
charge carriers at the surface of BaTiO3. An instability at T ~ 285K assumes a volatile
behavior of these surface states.
The ferroelectricity in BaTiO3 allows a control of the electronic structure at the interface
of BaTiO3-based heterostructures. Therefore, the interface electronic structure
of Bi/BaTiO3 was studied with respect to the strongly spin-orit coupled states in Bi by
also including a thickness dependent characterization. The ARPES results, indeed,
confirm the presence of Rashba spin-split electronic states in the bulk band gap of the ferroelectric substrate. By varying the film thickness in Bi/BaTiO3, it was able to modify
the energy position and the Fermi vector of the spin-split states. This observation
is associated with the appearance of an interface state which was observed for very
low film thickness. Both spectral findings suggest a significant coupling between the
Bi films and BaTiO3.
Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit der Untersuchung und Manipulation von Halbleitern, bei
denen die Spin-Bahn-Kopplung (SBK) in Kombination mit einem Bruch der strukturellen Inversionssymmetrie zu einer impulsabhängigen Spinaufspaltung der Bandstruktur führt. Von besonderem Interesse ist hierbei der Zusammenhang zwischen der spinabhängigen elektronischen Struktur und der strukturellen Geometrie. Dieser wird durch eine Kombination komplementärer, oberflächensensitiver Messmethoden - insbesondere Rastertunnelmikroskopie
(STM) und Photoelektronenspektroskopie (PES) - an geeigneten
Modellsystemen untersucht. Der experimentelle Fokus liegt dabei auf den polaren Halbleitern BiTeX (X =I, Br, Cl). Zusätzliche Experimente werden an dünnen Schichten der topologischen Isolatoren (TI) Bi1,1-xSb0;9+xSe3 (x = 0. . . 1,1) und Bi2Te2Se durchgeführt. Die inversionsasymmetrische Kristallstruktur in BiTeX führt zur Existenz zweier nicht-äquivalenter Oberflächen mit unterschiedlicher Terminierung (Te oder X) und invertierter atomarer Stapelfolge. STM-Aufnahmen der Oberflächen gespaltener Einkristalle belegen für BiTeI(0001) eine Koexistenz beider Terminierungen auf einer Längenskala von etwa 100 nm, die sich auf Stapelfehler im Kristallvolumen zurückführen lassen. Diese Domänen sind groß genug, um eine vollständig entwickelte Banddispersion auszubilden und erzeugen daher eine Kombination der Bandstrukturen beider Terminierungen bei räumlich integrierenden Messmethoden. BiTeBr(0001) und BiTeCl(0001) hingegen zeichnen sich durch homogene Terminierungen auf einer makroskopischen Längenskala aus. Atomar
aufgelöste STM-Messungen zeigen für die drei Systeme unterschiedliche Defektdichten der einzelnen Lagen sowie verschiedene strukturelle Beeinflussungen durch die Halogene. PES-Messungen belegen einen starken Einfluss der Terminierung auf verschiedene Eigenschaften der Oberflächen, insbesondere auf die elektronische Bandstruktur, die Austrittsarbeit sowie auf die Wechselwirkung mit Adsorbaten. Die unterschiedliche Elektronegativität der Halogene resultiert in verschieden starken Ladungsübergängen innerhalb der kovalent-ionisch gebundenen BiTe+ X- Einheitszelle. Eine erweiterte Analyse der Oberflächeneigenschaften ist durch die Bedampfung mit Cs möglich, wobei eine Änderung der elektronischen Struktur durch die Wechselwirkung mit dem Alkalimetall studiert wird. Modifiziert man die Kristallstruktur sowie die chemische Zusammensetzung von BiTeI(0001) nahe der Oberfläche durch Heizen im Vakuum, bewirkt dies eine Veränderung der Bandstruktur in zwei Schritten. So führt zunächst der Verlust von Iod zum Verlust der Rashba-Aufspaltung, was vermutlich durch eine Aufhebung der Inversionsasymmetrie in der Einheitszelle verursacht wird. Anschließend bildet sich eine neue Kristallstruktur, die topologisch nichttriviale Oberflächenzustände hervorbringt. Der Umordnungsprozess betrifft allerdings nur die Kristalloberfläche - im Volumen bleibt die inversionsasymmetrische
Einheitszelle erhalten. Einem derartigen Hybridsystem werden bislang unbekannte elektronische Eigenschaften vorausgesagt. Eine systematische Untersuchung von Dünnschicht-TIs, die mittels Molekularstrahlepitaxie (MBE) erzeugt wurden, zeigt eine Veränderung der Morphologie und elektronischen Struktur in Abhängigkeit von Stöchiometrie und Substrat. Der Vergleich zwischen MBE und gewachsenen Einkristallen offenbart deutliche Unterschiede. Bei einem der Dünnschichtsysteme tritt sogar eine lokal inhomogene Zustandsdichte im Bindungsenergiebereich des topologischen Oberflächenzustands auf.
Spin- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy is the prime method to investigate
spin polarized electronic states at solid state surfaces. In how far the spin polarization
of an emitted photoelectron reflects the intrinsic spin character of an electronic state is
the main question in the work at hand. It turns out that the measured spin polarization
is strongly influenced by experimental conditions, namely by the polarization of the
incoming radiation and the excitation energy. The photoemission process thus plays a
non-negligible role in a spin-sensitive measurement. This work is dedicated to unravel
the relation between the result of a spin-resolved measurement and the spin character
in the ground state and, therefore, to gain a deep understanding of the spin-dependent
photoemission process.
Materials that exhibit significant spin-splittings in their electronic structure,
owing to a strong spin-orbit coupling, serve as model systems for the investigations in
this work. Therefore, systems with large Rashba-type spin-splittings as BiTeI(0001)
and the surface alloys BiAg2/Ag(111) and PbAg2/Ag(111) are investigated. Likewise,
the surface electronic structure of the topological insulators Bi2Te2Se(0001) and
Bi2Te3(0001) are analyzed.
Light polarization dependent photoemission experiments serve as a probe of the
orbital composition of electronic states. The knowledge of the orbital structure helps
to disentangle the spin-orbital texture inherent to the different surface states, when
in addition the spin-polarization is probed. It turns out that the topological surface
state of Bi2Te2Se(0001) as well as the Rashba-type surface state of BiTeI(0001) exhibit
chiral spin-textures associated with the p-like in-plane orbitals. In particular, opposite
chiralities are coupled to either tangentially or radially aligned p-like orbitals,
respectively. The results presented here are thus evidence that a coupling between
spin- and orbital part of the wave function occurs under the influence of spin-orbit
coupling, independent of the materials topology.
Systematic photon energy dependent measurements of the out-of-plane spin polarization
of the topological surface state of Bi2Te3(0001) reveal a strong dependence and
even a reversal of the sign of the photoelectron spin polarization with photon energy.
Similarly, the measured spin component perpendicular to the wave vector of the surface
state of BiAg2/Ag(111) shows strong modulations and sign reversals when the photon energy is changed. In BiAg2/Ag(111) the variations in the photoelectron spin
polarization are accompanied by significant changes and even a complete suppression
of the photoemission intensity from the surface state, indicating that the variations of
the spin polarization are strongly related to the photoemission cross section.
This relation is finally analyzed in detail by employing a simple model, which is
based on an evaluation of the transition matrix elements that describe the presented
experiments. The model shows that the underlying cause for the observed photoelectron
spin reversals can be found in the coupling of the spin structure to the spatial part
of the initial state wave function, revealing the crucial role of spin-orbit interaction
in the initial state wave function. The model is supported by ab initio photoemission
calculations, which show strong agreement with the experimental results.
The rich phase diagram of transition metal oxides essentially roots in the many body physics arising from strong Coulomb interactions within the underlying electron system.
Understanding such electronic correlation effects remains challenging for modern solid state physics, therefore experimental data is required for further progress in the field. For this reason, spectroscopic investigations of prototypical correlated materials are the scope of this thesis. The experimental methods focus on photoelectron spectroscopy, and the test materials are the correlated metal SrVO\(_3\) and the Mott insulator LaTiO\(_3\), both of which are fabricated as high quality thin films.
In SrVO\(_3\) thin films, a reduction of the film thickness induces a dimensional crossover from the metallic into the Mott insulating phase. In this thesis, an extrinsic chemical contribution from a surface over-oxidation is revealed that emerges additionally to the intrinsic change of the effective bandwidth usually identified to drive the transition. The two contributions are successfully disentangled by applying a capping layer that prevents the oxidation, allowing for a clean view on the dimensional crossover in fully stoichiometric samples. Indeed, these stoichiometric layers exhibit a higher critical thickness for the onset of the metallic phase than the bare and therefore over-oxidized thin films.
For LaTiO\(_3\) thin films, the tendency to over-oxidize is even stronger. An uncontrolled oxygen diffusion from the substrate into the film is found to corrupt the electronic properties of LaTiO\(_3\) layers grown on SrTiO\(_3\). The Mott insulating phase is only detected in stoichiometric films fabricated on more suitable DyScO\(_3\) substrates. In turn, it is demonstrated that a \(controlled\) incorporation of excess oxygen ions by increasing the oxygen growth pressure is an effective way of \(p\) doping the material which is used to drive the band filling induced Mott transition.
Gaining control of the oxygen stoichiometry in both materials allows for a systematic investigation of correlation effects in general and of the Mott transition in particular. The investigations are realized by various photoelectron spectroscopy techniques that provide a deep insight into the electronic structure. Resonant photoemission not only gives access to the titanium and vanadium related partial density of states of the valence band features, but also shows how the corresponding signal is enhanced by tuning the photon energy to the \(L\) absorption threshold. The enhanced intensity turns out to be very helpful for probing the Fermi surface topology and band dispersions by means of angular-resolved photoemission. The resulting momentum resolved electronic structure verifies central points of the theoretical description of the Mott transition, viz. the renormalization of the band width and a constant Luttinger volume in a correlated metal as the Mott phase is approached.
Realization and Spectroscopy of the Quantum Spin Hall Insulator Bismuthene on Silicon Carbide
(2022)
Topological matter is one of the most vibrant research fields of contemporary solid state physics since the theoretical prediction of the quantum spin Hall effect in graphene in 2005. Quantum spin Hall insulators possess a vanishing bulk conductivity but symmetry-protected, helical edge states that give rise to dissipationless charge transport.
The experimental verification of this exotic state of matter in 2007 lead to a boost of research activity in this field, inspired by possible ground-breaking future applications.
However, the use of the quantum spin Hall materials available to date is limited to cryogenic temperatures owing to their comparably small bulk band gaps.
In this thesis, we follow a novel approach to realize a quantum spin Hall material with a large energy gap and epitaxially grow bismuthene, i.e., Bi atoms adopting a honeycomb lattice, in a \((\sqrt{3}\times\sqrt{3})\) reconstruction on the semiconductor SiC(0001). In this way, we profit both from the honeycomb symmetry as well as the large spin-orbit coupling of Bi, which, in combination, give rise to a topologically non-trivial band gap on the order of one electronvolt.
An in-depth theoretical analysis demonstrates that the covalent bond between the Si and Bi atoms is not only stabilizing the Bi film but is pivotal to attain the quantum spin Hall phase.
The preparation of high-quality, unreconstructed SiC(0001) substrates sets the basis for the formation of bismuthene and requires an extensive procedure in ultra-pure dry H\(_2\) gas. Scanning tunneling microscopy measurements unveil the (\(1\times1\)) surface periodicity and smooth terrace planes, which are suitable for the growth of single Bi layers by means of molecular beam epitaxy. The chemical configuration of the resulting Bi film and its oxidation upon exposure to ambient atmosphere are inspected with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.
Angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy reveals the excellent agreement of probed and calculated band structure. In particular, it evidences a characteristic Rashba-splitting of the valence bands at the K point. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy probes signatures of this splitting, as well, and allows to determine the full band gap with a magnitude of \(E_\text{gap}\approx0.8\,\text{eV}\).
Constant-current images and local-density-of-state maps confirm the presence of a planar honeycomb lattice, which forms several domains due to different, yet equivalent, nucleation sites of the (\(\sqrt{3}\times\sqrt{3}\))-Bi reconstruction.
Differential conductivity measurements demonstrate that bismuthene edge states evolve at atomic steps of the SiC substrate. The probed, metallic local density of states is in agreement with the density of states expected from the edge state's energy dispersion found in density functional theory calculations - besides a pronounced dip at the Fermi level.
By means of temperature- and energy-dependent tunneling spectroscopy it is shown that the spectral properties of this suppressed density of states are successfully captured in the framework of the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid theory and most likely originate from enhanced electronic correlations in the edge channel.
Eingebettet in ein Konzept zum Aufbau eines Hochleistungs-Feldeffekt-Transistors auf der Basis organischer Halbleiter (OFET), werden in der vorliegenden Dissertation fundamentale Aspekte des Aufbaus und der Funktion organischer Halbleiter-Bauelemente erforscht. Die Kenntnis, welche maximale Leistungsfähigkeit organische Halbleiter in OFETs prinzipiell erreichen können, ist von elementarem Interesse, sowohl um Transportmodelle zu verfeinern, als auch um Mechanismen und Optimierungsansätze zu finden, mit denen OFETs generell verbessert werden können. Es wird das Ziel verfolgt, sich der maximalen Leistungsfähigkeit eines gegebenen Materialsystems anzunähern. Aufwendige Präparationsstrategien werden für dieses Ziel bewusst in Kauf genommen, auch wenn deshalb vermutlich kein direkter Zugang zu Anwendungen eröffnet wird. An geeigneten Modellsystemen können einzelne wichtige Aspekte, wie die elektronische Struktur an Metallkontakten und im organischen Halbleitervolumen sowie das Wachstum von Schichten und Kristalliten organischer Halbleitermoleküle auf einkristallinen Isolatorsubstraten charakterisiert werden. Die Ergebnisse dieser grundlegenden Experimente fließen in den Aufbau des geplanten OFETs ein. Auf dem Weg zu einem funktionsfähigen Bauelement mit bestmöglichen Eigenschaften wurden wesentliche Fortschritte erzielt. Der erste Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit ist die Untersuchung elektronischer Niveaus an Metallkontakt-Grenzflächen und im Volumen des Modellsystems PTCDA/Ag(111) mit Zwei-Photonen-Photoelektronenspektroskopie (2PPE). Die 2PPE-Spektren der PTCDA/Ag(111)-Grenzfläche sind dominiert durch einen unbesetzten, parallel zur Grenzfläche stark dispersiven Shockley-artigen Grenzflächenzustand (IS), der sich durch die Chemisorption der Moleküle auf der Ag(111)-Oberfläche bildet. Bei der Untersuchung von intramolekular angeregten elektronischen Zuständen von PTCDA mit 2PPE zeigen sich im Vergleich zum Untergrund der Spektren schwache Signale, die jedoch mit einer geeigneten Beschreibung des Untergrunds davon separiert werden können. Besonders interessant ist in diesem Zusammenhang das LUMO, das bei einer Anregung aus dem HOMO eine um 0,4 eV stärkere energetische Absenkung zeigt, als bei der Anregung aus dem HOMO-1. Dies kann durch die unterschiedlichen exzitonischen Zustände, die bei den Anregungen entstehen, erklärt werden. Neben den metallischen Kontakten ist die Grenzfläche zwischen organischem Halbleiter und Gate-Isolator entscheidend für die Leistungsfähigkeit eines OFETs. Am Beispiel des Wachstums von Diindenoperylen-Molekülen (DIP) auf einkristallinen Al2O3-Substraten wurde die morphologische und strukturelle Ausbildung von organischen Halbleiterschichten mit optischer Mikroskopie und Rasterkraftmikroskopie untersucht. Das Wachstum kann als stark anisotrop charakterisiert werden. Die – im Vergleich zu den Bindungsenergien mit dem Substrat – deutlich größeren Bindungsenergien innerhalb der DIP-(001)-Kristallebenen führen bei Substrattemperaturen von 440 K zu einem Wachstum von aufrecht stehenden Molekülen. Es zeigt sich, dass die während des Wachstums herrschende Substrattemperatur einen entscheidenden Einfluss auf die Morphologie der DIP-Schicht hat. So nimmt die Inselgröße von etwa 200 nm bei 350 K auf über 700 nm bei 450 K zu. Außerdem wird ein Ansteigen der Filmrauheit, besonders ab etwa 430 K, beobachtet, das auf den Übergang zu einem anderen Wachstumsmodus bei diesen Temperaturen hinweist. Bei etwas höheren Temperaturen von etwa 460 K wird das Wachstum von DIP-Kristalliten beobachtet. Dabei können – abhängig von den gewählten Präparationsparametern – drei unterschiedliche Kristallit-Typen unterschieden werden: „Mesa-Kristallite“ mit lateralen Abmessungen von mehreren Mikrometern, „Dendritische Kristallite“, die eine verzweigte Struktur aufweisen, die mithilfe der Wachstumskinetik erklärt werden kann und „Schichtkristallite“, deren Morphologie sich durch teilweise starke Krümmungen auszeichnet. Insgesamt zeigt sich, dass die Morphologie kristalliner Strukturen durch eine feine Balance der Präparationsparameter Substrattemperatur, Aufdampfrate, Substratmorphologie und Substratreinheit bestimmt wird, so dass kleine Änderungen dieser Parameter zu deutlich unterschiedlichen Kristallitformen führen. Schließlich wird das Konzept zum Aufbau eines Hochleistungs-OFET vorgestellt und in Details weiterentwickelt. Fortschritte werden in erster Linie bei der Präparation der Gate-Elektrode erzielt, die unter dem Al2O3-Substrat angebracht werden soll. Für die Ausdünnung des Substrats wird eine Bohrtechnik weiterentwickelt und mit einer nasschemischen Ätzmethode kombiniert, so dass Isolatorstärken von unter 10 µm erreicht werden können. Erste wenige OFETs wurden auf der Basis dieses Substrats präpariert, allerdings ohne dass die Bauteile Feldeffekte zeigten. Verbesserungsmöglichkeiten werden diskutiert.
The present thesis is concerned with the impact of alkali metal-doping on the electronic structure of semiconducting organic thin films. The organic molecular systems which have been studied are the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons picene, pentacene, and coronene. Motivated by reports about exceptional behavior like superconductivity and electronic correlations of their alkali metal-doped compounds, high quality films fabricated from the above named molecules have been studied. The electronic structure of the pristine materials and their doped compounds has been investigated using photoelectron spectroscopy. Core level and valence band studies of undoped films yield excellent photoemission spectra agreeing with or even outperforming previously reported data from the literature. Alkali metal-doping manifests itself in a uniform manner in the electronic structure for all probed samples: Opposed to reports from the literature about metallicity and even superconductivity in alkali metal-doped picene, pentacene, and coronene, all films exhibit insulating nature with an energy gap of the order of one electron-volt. Remarkably, this is independent of the doping concentration and the type of dopant, i.e., potassium, cesium, or sodium. Based on the interplay between narrow bandwidths in organic semiconductors and sufficiently high on-molecule Coulomb repulsion, the non-metallicity is attributed to the strong influence of electronic correlations leading to the formation of a Mott insulator. In the case of picene, this is consolidated by calculations using a combination of density functional theory and dynamical mean-field theory. Beyond the extensive considerations regarding electronic correlations, further intriguing aspects have been observed. The deposition of thin picene films leads to the formation of a non-equilibrium situation between substrate and film surface. Here, the establishment of a homogeneous chemical potential is hampered due to the only weak van der Waals-interactions between the molecular layers in the films. Consequently, spectral weight is measurable above the reference chemical potential in photoemission. Furthermore, it has been found that the acceptance of additional electrons in pentacene is limited. While picene and coronene are able to host up to three extra electrons, in pentacene the limit is already reached for one electron. Finally, further extrinsic effects, coming along with alkali metal-doping, have been scrutinized. The oxidation of potassium atoms induced by the reaction with molecular oxygen in the residual gas of the ultra-high vacuum system turned out to significantly influence the electronic structure of alkali metal-doped picene and coronene. Moreover, also the applied X-ray and UV irradiation caused a certain impact on the photoemission spectra. Surprisingly, both effects did not play a role in the studies of potassium-doped pentacene.