Structure of self‐organizing organic films: A near edge x‐ray absorption fine structure investigation of thiol layers adsorbed on gold

Self‐assembled films of thiols on polycrystalline Au substrates have been investigated with near edge x‐ray absorption fine structure. From the angular dependence of two different resonances the orientation of the molecular axis of the alkyl chains with respect to the surface normal is determined and compared to results obtained by other techniques. By comparing data for thiol films and LB films of Cd and Ca arachidate it is found that thiol films are considerably better ordered.