PPP Slowakei - Real-time growth studies of hybrid van der Waals heterostructures

01/01/2019 to 31/12/2020

The aim of this project is to study the growth of small organic semiconducting (OSC) molecules on two-dimensional (2D) layered MoS2 substrates, i.e. the growth of the hybrid van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs). In more detail, we will focus on the growth kinetics and its correlation with external parameters, such as deposition flux, substrate temperature, crystallographic orientation and morphological quality of the substrate. The main objectives can be divided into these steps:
1. Controlled growth of small organic molecules on MoS2 thin films, which will be directly studied by means of time-resolved in-situ X-ray scattering techniques (GI-WAXS/SAXS) and complemented by in-situ optical spectroscopy techniques including fluorescence, spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) and reflectivity.
2. Ex-situ measurements of the structural and electronic properties of hybrid vdWHs using scanning probe techniques (AFM, SEM, TEM) and spectroscopy techniques (e.g. confocal Raman microscopy, polarization modulation-infrared reflection-adsorption spectroscopy - PM-IRRAS, SE, angle-resolved reflectivity measurements in UV-VIS-IR spectral range).
3. Correlation of the obtained results with the aim to derive the structural and electronic properties (in terms of density of states) of the hybrid vdWHs.
This project will facilitate a deeper understanding of the intriguing properties of the hybrid van der Waals structures, which may be incorporated into the next generation of optoelectronic devices with an atomically thin geometry.