Imaging buried organic islands by spatially resolved ballistic electron emission spectroscopy

The well-known Au/n-Si(111) Schottky interface is modified by a discontinuous pentacene film (∼1.5 nm thick) and studied using spatially resolved ballistic electron emission spectroscopy (BEES). The pentacene film introduced subtle changes to the interface which cannot be definitively detected by current-voltage measurements or a standard BEES analysis of the barrier height. In contrast, analyzing the BEES results in a dual-parameter (transmission attenuation and barrier height) space allows the effect of the pentacene film on the Au/n-Si(111) interface to be clearly demonstrated. We found that the pentacene film behaves like a tunneling barrier and increases the distribution of local barrier heights with a tendency toward lower values. Our results highlight the potential of the dual-parameter BEES analysis for understanding local interface modification by molecules.