On the Impact of Electron Spectroscopies (Versus Optical Techniques) to Study Organized Organic Layers and Their Interfaces

When preparing and characterizing ordered organic layers, knowledge of the structure of the ultra-thin fihns is often
missing or difficult to gather. For different self-assembled layers of the thiol and carboxylic acid families, we show that
this valuable type of information is obtainable with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and high-resolution electron
energyqoss spectroscopy (HREELS). Indeed, information on the film order and superficial composition is available through
analysis of the core-level peak positions and widths (in XPS), and through study of the elastic peak width and angular
distribution and analysis of the material excitation function (in HREELS). However, [or some insight into the crystallinity of
the layer and intermolecular interactions, infrared spectroscopy in the grazing-angle absorption--reflection mode (IRASI
appears to be complementary