A method for screening of coverage and film thickness of monolayers by projection of molecular electron density surface onto a substrate plane

Self-assembled monolayer films of a copper tetraazaphthalocyanine have been prepared on quartz and silicon at 120 degreesC in DMF solution and at 250 degreesC in bromonaphthalene solution. A procedure is presented for obtaining film thickness for a sufficiently dense monolayer by fitting the 2D image of the 3D electron density surface of the chromophore in the film to a surface-coverage measure derived from absorption spectroscopy. The film thickness obtained by the electron density projection method is compared to that from ellipsometry. The projection method is expected to be useful for film-screening purposes and can also yield an average angle between the surface and chromophore normals. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.