Para-hexaphenyl nanofiber growth on Au-coated porous alumina templates

The availability of easy and reproducible methods for formation of periodically nanostructured surfaces allows one to study the quasi-epitaxial growth of nanowires on such artificially modified substrates. Here, we demonstrate that crystalline nanofibers of para-hexaphenyl can grow on porous alumina templates with high pore regularity once the templates have been coated by a thin Au film. Nanofibers of that kind represent a model system for the general class of organic nanowires which have chemically changeable optoelectronic properties and hence are of interest for integration into future optoelectronic devices.