In 2005 a group of engineers at IMEC, a microelectronics company based in Leuven, Belgium, overcame a major technological hurdle by constructing a diode made
of pentacene, an organic compound that has semiconductor properties.
Louie noted that many past efforts had focused on just a few molecules within the material — in this case, the crystallized form
of pentacene, which is composed of hydrogen and carbon — to learn about these exotic effects.
On the example
of pentacene, a common organic semiconductor, Oehzelt has quantitatively checked the model's predictions for interface losses.
The pictures on the left show the highest occupied molecular orbital (top) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (bottom)
of pentacene, as mapped by the STM.
Not exact matches
After extensive testing, Oxborrow and his colleagues zeroed in on a hydrocarbon crystal made
of p - terphenyl and
pentacene.
The result was a picture
of the bonds linking the carbon and hydrogen atoms that make up the flat molecule
pentacene.
The hexagonal shapes
of the five carbon rings in the
pentacene molecule are clearly resolved.
In 2009, scientists at IBM used an AFM with a CO2 molecule adsorbed on the tip, and using the interaction
of this molecule with carbon atoms, they were able to resolve with high detail the chemical structure
of small molecules like
pentacene.
The structural investigations
of model organic systems like
pentacene in the monolayer regime is very important for fundamental understanding
of the initial nucleation process together with the electronic performance
of transistor devices.