The epitaxial growth of self-assembled ternaphthalene fibers on muscovite mica

The morphology and structure of 2,2′:6′,2″-ternaphthalene (NNN) deposited on muscovite mica(001) substrates was investigated by scanning force microscopy (SFM) and specular X-ray diffraction measurements. Consistently, both methods reveal the coexistence of needle-like structures with a {111} contact plane and {001} orientated island-like crystallites, which are built up by almost upright standing NNN molecules. Both orientations are characterized by a well-defined azimuthal alignment relative to the substrate surface, which is analyzed by X-ray diffraction pole figure (XRD-PF) measurements. Based on XRD-PF and SFM analysis, the azimuthal alignment of {001} orientated crystallites is explained by ledge-directed epitaxy along the fibers’ sidewalls. These fibers are found to orient along two dominant directions, which is verified and explained by a doubling of the energetically preferred molecular adsorption site by mirror symmetry of the substrate surface. The experimental findings are confirmed by force-field simulations and are discussed based on a recently reported growth model.