Composition-spread thin films of pentacene and 6,13-pentacenequinone fabricated by using continuous-wave laser molecular beam epitaxy

Synthesis of continuous composition-spread (CCS) thin films is widely recognized in combinatorial material science as a powerful technique for rapidly investigating the properties of new functional materials. However, there are very few reports of CCS organic thin films due to the fact that the thermal evaporation method with Knudsen cells, which is commonly used to fabricate organic thin films in vacuum, does not offer the necessary level of deposition rate control as, for example, does pulsed laser deposition (PLD). We have successfully fabricated organic CCS thin films of pentacene and 6,13-pentacenequinone by continuous-wave laser molecular beam epitaxy (CWL-MBE), which we developed as a new fabrication method for organic thin films. The composition-spread films were characterized systematically by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and two-probe conductivity measurements. The present work brings the advantages of high-throughput parallel synthesis and systematic characterization to the field of organic electronics, allowing for quick exploration and rapid optimization of organic functional materials and devices.