Chemical Physics Letters, Vol.574, 51-55, 2013
A disordered layered phase in thin films of sexithiophene
This Letter reports the impact of the evaporation rate on the crystallographic phase formation of vacuum deposited alpha-sexithiophene thin films studied by X-ray diffraction methods. The experiments reveal the formation of two crystal phases, one of which is a thermodynamically stable phase occurring at low rates, while the second is favored by high rates. This second phase exhibits an increased layer spacing and diffraction features typical for two-dimensional crystals which are laterally ordered but without interlayer correlations of the molecular positions. This disordered layered phase comprises molecules of nonuniform conformations, and is kinetically induced. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.