A one-dimensional high-order commensurate phase of tilted molecules

Anthony Thomas (1) , Thomas Leoni (1) , Olivier Siri (1) , Conrad Becker (1) , Martin Unzog (1) , Christian Kern (2) , Peter Puschnig (3) , Peter Zeppenfeld (4, 1)

1 CINaM - Centre Interdisciplinaire de Nanoscience de Marseille
2 KIT - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
3 Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz
4 JKU - University of Linz - Johannes Kepler Universität Linz

We report on the formation of a high-order commensurate (HOC) structure of 5,14-dihydro-5,7,12,14-tetraazapentacene (DHTAP) molecules on the highly corrugated Cu(110)–(2 × 1)O surface. Scanning tunnelling microscopy shows that the DHTAP molecules form a periodic uniaxial arrangement in which groups of seven molecules are distributed over exactly nine substrate lattice spacings along the [[1 with combining macron]10] direction. DFT-calculations reveal that this peculiar arrangement is associated with different tilting of the seven DHTAP molecules within the quasi one-dimensional HOC unit cell. The orientational degree of freedom thus adds a new parameter, which can efficiently stabilize complex molecular structures on corrugated surfaces.

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]; Chimie-Physique [physics.chem-ph]

Anthony Thomas, Thomas Leoni, Olivier Siri, Conrad Becker, Martin Unzog, et al.. A one-dimensional high-order commensurate phase of tilted molecules. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2022, 24 (16), pp.9118-9122. ⟨10.1039/d2cp00437b⟩. ⟨hal-03736825⟩