High quality thin films of fullerene by means of nucleation-control on the substrate surface

Abstract To fabricate ultrathin films of fullerene (C60) without any dislocation and stacking faults, nucleation and crystal growth during deposition should be precisely controlled. Slow evaporation of C60 onto the (001) planes of alkali halides, NaCl, KC1 and KBr, and mica kept at higher temperature, leads the discrete nucleation, whose distances between the adjacent small crystals depended on the substrate temperature and the kinds of substrates. It was found that the island crystals on KC1 tended to be especially created on the center of adjacent terraces and at the edge of surface step, and these distance between the neighboring islands depended on the width of terrace and substrate temperature. The nucleation mechanism of C60 was for the first time confirmed in the sense of crystal growth.