Artículos SCI

We have studied the effect of mechanical energy transfer from the tip of an atomic force microscope on the dynamics of self-assembly of monolayer films of octadecylamine on mica. The formation of the self-assembled film proceeds in two successive stages, the first being a fast adsorption from solution that follows a Langmuir isotherm. The second is a slower process of island growth by aggregation of the molecules dispersed on the surface. We found that the dynamics of aggregation can be altered substantially by the addition of mechanical energy into the system through controlled tip surface interactions. This leads to both the creation of pinholes in existing islands as a consequence of vacancy concentration and to the assembly of residual molecules into more compact islands.

For the first time, grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) analysis is used to characterize the Morphology of TiO2 thin films grown by glancing angle physical vapor deposition (GLAD). According to cross-section scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, the films consist of near isotilted TiO2 columns of different length and width depending on film thickness. The obtained GISAXS patterns show a characteristic asymmetry with respect to the incidence plane, which is associated with the titled of the TiO2 columns. The patterns also show the existence of two populations of columns in these GLAD TiO2 films. The population of the thinnest columns appears related to the first grown layer and is common for all the films investigated, while the second population of columns grows with the thickness of the films and has been related to wider columns formed by shadowing at the expense of the initially formed columns.