Vapor-Deposited Polythiophene by XPS

High quality polythiophene films have been grown using a vapor-deposition process using polythiophene powder as the starting material. The powder was placed in an open quartz crucible (housed in a tungsten basket) and heated by running a high current (10-20 A) through it. The evaporated material was deposited onto a glass substrate placed roughly 3 cm above the crucible. The as-deposited, undoped polythiophene film has been characterized using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and is contrasted with the initial polythiophene powder. The reported spectra include survey and high resolution scans for the major photoelectron peaks. It is noted that these results compare favorably with previously published spectra from polythiophene grown using the more conventional chemical or electrochemical methods.