Energy transfer in highly oriented permethyl-dodecasilane and -octadecasilane films

Heterostructured films of permethyl-dodecasilane (DM12) and permethyl octad ecasilane (DM18) were prepared on silicon and fused quartz plates under ult rahigh vacuum conditions and the films were characterized by optical absorp tion and photoluminescence spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy. The m olecules were found to form highly oriented films in a layer-by-layer growt h mode with their molecular chains perpendicular to the substrate surface. Moreover, it was found on the basis of optical measurement that the energy transfer progressed effectively from the optically excited state of DM12 ge nerated by the sigma-sigma* one-electron transition to that of DM18 through the interface between the layers. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science S .A. All rights reserved.