The electric field of ferroelectric materials has been used as a driving force to promote molecular adsorption and control the orientation of small dipolar molecules. This approach has not been investigated on larger polyaromatic molecules, such as those used in organic electronic devices, even though the physical and electronic properties of thin films are strongly dependent on molecular structure and orientation. Alex Ramadan and Luke Rochford from the Jones group investigated the effects of model ferroelectric surfaces on a dipolar organic semiconducting molecule. Whilst organic thin films could be grown on these surfaces, no obvious change to their structure or morphology was observed suggesting there was no influence of a surface electrical field or surface chemistry on the film structure, and that the substrate is more complex than previously thought.

The morphology and structure of vanadyl phthalocyanine thin films on lithium niobate single crystals Link

Alexandra J Ramadan, Luke A. Rochford, Jonathan Moffat, Chris Mulcahy, Mary P Ryan, Tim Jones and Sandrine Heutz