Angstrom-Resolved Interfacial Structure in Buried Organic-Inorganic Junctions

Craig P Schwartz; Sumana L Raj; Sasawat Jamnuch; Chris J Hull; Paolo Miotti; Royce K Lam; Dennis Nordlund; Can B Uzundal; Chaitanya Das Pemmaraju; Riccardo Mincigrucci; Laura Foglia; Alberto Simoncig; Marcello Coreno; Claudio Masciovecchio; Luca Giannessi; Luca Poletto; Emiliano Principi; Michael Zuerch; Tod A Pascal; Walter S Drisdell; Richard J Saykally

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.096801

Angstrom-Resolved Interfacial Structure in Buried Organic-Inorganic Junctions

Phys Rev Lett. 2021 Aug 27;127(9):096801. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.096801.

Authors

Craig P Schwartz¹, Sumana L Raj², Sasawat Jamnuch³, Chris J Hull^{1

2}, Paolo Miotti^{4

5}, Royce K Lam^{1

2}, Dennis Nordlund⁶, Can B Uzundal², Chaitanya Das Pemmaraju⁷, Riccardo Mincigrucci⁸, Laura Foglia⁸, Alberto Simoncig⁸, Marcello Coreno^{9

10}, Claudio Masciovecchio⁸, Luca Giannessi^{8

10}, Luca Poletto⁴, Emiliano Principi⁸, Michael Zuerch^{2

11

12

13}, Tod A Pascal^{3

14

15}, Walter S Drisdell^{1

16}, Richard J Saykally^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
² Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
³ ATLAS Materials Science Laboratory, Department of NanoEngineering and Chemical Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92023, USA.
⁴ Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies, National Research Council of Italy, via Trasea 7, I-35131 Padova, Italy.
⁵ Department of Information Engineering, University of Padova, via Gradenigo 6/B, I-35131 Padova, Italy.
⁶ Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
⁷ Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
⁸ Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Strada Statale 14-km 163.5, 34149 Trieste, Italy.
⁹ ISM-CNR, Istituto di Struttura della Materia, LD2 Unit, 34149 Trieste, Italy.
¹⁰ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Via E. Fermi 54, 00044 Frascati, Italy.
¹¹ Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
¹² Institute for Optics and Quantum Electronics, Abbe Center of Photonics, University of Jena, 07745 Jena, Germany.
¹³ Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
¹⁴ Materials Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92023, USA.
¹⁵ Sustainable Power and Energy Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92023, USA.
¹⁶ Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.

PMID: 34506179
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.096801

Abstract

Charge transport processes at interfaces play a crucial role in many processes. Here, the first soft x-ray second harmonic generation (SXR SHG) interfacial spectrum of a buried interface (boron-Parylene N) is reported. SXR SHG shows distinct spectral features that are not observed in x-ray absorption spectra, demonstrating its extraordinary interfacial sensitivity. Comparison to electronic structure calculations indicates a boron-organic separation distance of 1.9 Å, with changes of less than 1 Å resulting in easily detectable SXR SHG spectral shifts (ca. hundreds of milli-electron volts).