Optical Dynamics at the Au/ZnPc Interfaces

In this work, the optical dynamics and the structural properties of the zinc phthalocyanine which are coated onto 150 nm thick Au substrates are studied by the X-ray diffraction and optical spectrophotometry techniques. The Au/ZnPc interfaces appears to be strongly affected by the large lattice mismatches at the interface. It is observed that the coating ZnPc onto Au substrates increases the light absorbability by 4.7 and 128.2 times in the visible and infrared regions of light, respectively. Au substrates activated the free carrier absorption mechanism in the ZnPc thin films in the infrared range of light. In addition, the transparent Au substrates forced narrowing the energy band gap in both of the Q and B bands. It also increased the dielectric constant value by ~3.5 times in the IR range. The enhancements in the optical properties of ZnPc that resulted from the thin Au substrates make the ZnPc more suitable for optoelectronic, nonlinear optical applications and for electromagnetic energy storage in the infrared range of light.