Evidence for epitaxial arrangement and high conformational order of an organic monolayer on Si(111) by sum frequency generation spectroscopy

The structure of an octadecyl monolayer formed on a hydrogen-terminated Si(111) surface in neat octadecene was studied by infrared-visible sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy. The SFG spectra in the CH vibration region were dominated by peaks corresponding to those of the methyl group, confirming that the monolayer is essentially in the all-trans conformation. The shapes of the spectra were strongly dependent on the azimuthal angle, and the strength of the asymmetric vibration mode obtained from the theoretical fitting shows threefold symmetry with respect to the azimuthal angle, suggesting the epitaxial arrangement of the monolayer with the Si(111) substrate. The orientation angle of the methyl group estimated from SFG anisotropy was in good agreement with the theoretical prediction.