Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 55, 23902 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2011100428

Determination of critical island size in para-sexiphenyl islands on SiO₂ using capture-zone scaling

¹ Institute of Physics, University of Leoben, Franz Josef Strasse 18, 8700 Leoben, Austria
² Physics of Interfaces and Nanomaterials, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands

^a e-mail: teichert@unileoben.ac.at

Received: 22 October 2010
Accepted: 26 May 2011
Published online: 11 August 2011

Abstract

One of the important parameters in understanding the mechanism of the early stage of organic thin-film growth is the critical nucleus size i*. Here, submonolayer films of para-sexiphenyl grown on amorphous silicon dioxide substrates were investigated by means of atomic-force microscopy and have been analyzed using the recently proposed capture-zone scaling. Applying the generalized Wigner surmise we determine from the capture-zone distribution i* at room temperature and 373 K. The results are compared to traditional analysis by island-size scaling and the applicability of the capture-zone scaling is critically discussed with respect to island shape.