Surface Morphology of Thermally Annealed Copper Phthalocyanine Thin Films*

The effects of thermal annealing on post-deposition Copper Phthalocyanine (CuPc) thin films are systematically studied. Several CuPc thin films are concurrently deposited at room temperature and separately annealed in vacuum at temperatures up to 320°C for 30 minutes. Atomic force microscopy images show that the surface morphology changes from small round crystals around 59 nm in diameter to elongated crystals randomly oriented on the surface as the annealing temperature rises. This work demonstrates how the post-annealing procedure can affect structural properties in small molecular thin films.