Role of kinetic energy of impinging molecules in the α-sexithiophene growth

We report on the α-sexithiophene sub-monolayer growth with supersonic molecular beam deposition by investigating how the kinetic energy of the impinging molecules influences the growth on substrates with different surface wettabilities and temperatures. The results show that the energy of the impinging molecules affects the morphology of the molecular film increasing the coverage and the island size, and reducing the fractality of the sub-monolayer islands. The possibility of directing growth of more ordered islands could improve the performances of electronic devices, which are greatly affected by the structure of the first monolayers.