{\AA}ngstr\"om-resolved Interfacial Structure in Organic-Inorganic Junctions
Abstract
Charge transport processes at interfaces which are governed by complex interfacial electronic structure play a crucial role in catalytic reactions, energy storage, photovoltaics, and many biological 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 {\AA}, wherein changes as small as 0.1 {\AA} result in easily detectable SXR-SHG spectral shifts (ca. 100s of meV). As SXR-SHG is inherently ultrafast and sensitive to individual atomic layers, it creates the possibility to study a variety of interfacial processes, e.g. catalysis, with ultrafast time resolution and bond specificity.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2005.01905,
title = {{\AA}ngstr\"om-resolved Interfacial Structure in Organic-Inorganic Junctions},
author = {Craig P. Schwartz and Sumana L. Raj and Sasawat Jamnuch and Chris J. Hull and Paolo Miotti and Royce K. Lam and Dennis Nordlund and Can B. Uzundal and Chaitanya Das Pemmaraju and Riccardo Mincigrucci and Laura Foglia and Alberto Simoncig and Marcello Coreno and Claudio Masciovecchio and Luca Giannessi and Luca Poletto and Emiliano Principi and Michael Zuerch and Tod A. Pascal and Walter S. Drisdell and Richard J. Saykally},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2005.01905},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
19 pages