Optical imaging of thin films with molecular depth resolution

Applied Physics Letters

Volumn 89, Issue 24, 2006, Pages

  Kohler R ^a   Lazar, P ^a   Riegler, H ^a  

^a MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE OF COLLOIDS AND INTERFACES   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEPOSITION; IMAGE ANALYSIS; MOLECULAR STRUCTURE; SILICON WAFERS;

FILM TOPOLOGIES; MOLECULAR DEPTH RESOLUTION; OPTICAL IMAGING;

THIN FILMS;

EID: 33845793971     PISSN: 00036951     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1063/1.2404601     Document Type: Article

References (13)

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6. C. Merkl, T. Pfohl, and H. Riegler, Phys. Rev. Lett. 0031-9007 10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.4625 79, 4625 (1997); A. Holzwarth, S. Leporatti, and H. Riegler, Europhys. Lett. 0295-5075 10.1209/epl/i2000-00488-0 52, 653 (2000); H. Schollmeyer, B. Ocko, and H. Riegler, Langmuir 0743-7463 10.1021/la011620w 18, 4351 (2002); U. G. Volkmann, M. Pino, L. A. Altamiro, H. Taub, and F. Y. Hansen, J. Chem. Phys. 0021-9606 10.1063/1.1429645 116, 2107 (2002); H. Schollmeyer, B. Struth, and H. Riegler, Langmuir 19, 5042 (2003).
7. C. Merkl, T. Pfohl, and H. Riegler, Phys. Rev. Lett. 0031-9007 10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.4625 79, 4625 (1997); A. Holzwarth, S. Leporatti, and H. Riegler, Europhys. Lett. 0295-5075 10.1209/epl/i2000-00488-0 52, 653 (2000); H. Schollmeyer, B. Ocko, and H. Riegler, Langmuir 0743-7463 10.1021/la011620w 18, 4351 (2002); U. G. Volkmann, M. Pino, L. A. Altamiro, H. Taub, and F. Y. Hansen, J. Chem. Phys. 0021-9606 10.1063/1.1429645 116, 2107 (2002); H. Schollmeyer, B. Struth, and H. Riegler, Langmuir 19, 5042 (2003).
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12. See EPAPS Document No. E-APPLAB-89-339649 for T-cycle1.mov and T-cycle2.mov showing heating/cooling cycles (time-lapsed, real time per cycle ≈10 min) and depletion-zone.mov showing the domain growth from an ≈16 Å thick film after rapid cooling to 339.5 K (time-lapsed, real time ≈3 min). This document an be reached via a direct link in the online article's HTML reference section or via the EPAPS homepage (http://www.aip.org/pubservs/epaps. html). The temperature varies in both cases between 340 and 350 K. T-cycle1.mov starts with many smaller domains (created before by fast cooling, not shown), which melt upon heating. Recooling grows larger domains. T-cycle2.mov shows the following temperature cycle from the same area. The large domains grow upon cooling with different shapes but exactly at the same spots due to nucleation active centers (e.g., structural defects, impurities, etc.). A depletion zone in front of the solid domains is visible due to the alkane flow towards the solid domains. For all three movies the depicted area is about 1×0.7 mm2.
13. Technical equipment: Optical microscope AX-70 (Olympus), Objective UMPlanFI 5×0.15, video camera: TVCCD-700 (also TVCCD-460, TVCCD-480), Monacor, Bremen, Germany; frame grabber card AG-5 (Scion Corp., Frederick, ML); Software: IMAGEJ (WWW); Interference filters: BK-Interferenzoptik, Nabburg, Germany, BW ≈30 nm; Home-made heat stage.