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Nanofibers made to order - Free floating, transferred and gel-packed organic nanoaggregates

Abstract:

Light-emitting nanofibers grown from organic molecules such as para-hexaphenyl or substituted para-quaterphenyl have extraordinary morphological, optical and electrical properties that make them interesting candidates as key elements in future electronics and photonics. These fibers are generated in a self assembly fashion on template substrates. In order to integrate them into more complex structures, a transfer from the growth substrate is necessary. In this paper we show results from optical and morphological measurements on nanofibers transferred onto semiconductors, kept freely floating in solution and frozen in gel. The former investigations allow us to study with nanometric resolution via an atomic force microscope the deformability of nanofibers. The latter studies, based on single photon as well as confocal two-photon microscopy, provide three-dimensional optical images and also the angular distribution of light emitted from individual aggregates. It is observed that waveguiding affects the spatial emission characteristics.