Organic molecular beam deposition:: fundamentals, growth dynamics, and in situ studies

We review recent progress on thin film growth by organic molecular beam deposition (OMBD). We give a brief overview of growth physics with emphasis on the specific characteristics of organic materials, such as weak van der Waals binding forces and conformational and orientational degrees of freedom of the molecular building blocks. Two recent developments in experimental studies of OMBD will be discussed in more detail: (1) we will give examples for real-time and in situ growth studies during deposition of the organic semiconductors pentacene, diindenoperylene, and PTCDA and (2) we will give an overview of high precision in situ investigations of the first molecular monolayer, in particular using the x-ray standing wave technique.