@article{MalyarTitovLomadzeetal.2017, author = {Malyar, Ivan V. and Titov, Evgenii and Lomadze, Nino and Saalfrank, Peter and Santer, Svetlana}, title = {Photoswitching of azobenzene-containing self-assembled monolayers as a tool for control over silicon surface electronic properties}, series = {The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr}, volume = {146}, journal = {The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr}, publisher = {American Institute of Physics}, address = {Melville}, issn = {0021-9606}, doi = {10.1063/1.4978225}, pages = {8}, year = {2017}, abstract = {We report on photoinduced remote control of work function and surface potential of a silicon surface modified with a photosensitive self-assembled monolayer consisting of chemisorbed azobenzene molecules (4-nitroazobenzene). Itwas found that the attachment of the organic monolayer increases the work function by hundreds of meV due to the increase in the electron affinity of silicon substrates. The change in the work function on UV light illumination is more pronounced for the azobenzene jacketed silicon substrate (ca. 250 meV) in comparison to 50 meV for the unmodified surface. Moreover, the photoisomerization of azobenzene results in complex kinetics of thework function change: immediate decrease due to light-driven processes in the silicon surface followed by slower recovery to the initial state due to azobenzene isomerization. This behavior could be of interest for electronic devices where the reaction on irradiation should be more pronounced at small time scales but the overall surface potential should stay constant over time independent of the irradiation conditions. Published by AIP Publishing.}, language = {en} }