Study of C60/Au(110)-p(6x5) reconstruction from In-plane X-Ray diffraction data

Fullerene molecules absorbed on the highly anisotropic Au(110)-p(1x2) surface induce an ordered p(6x5) superstructure that has been solved by applying the 2D "direct methods" difference sum function to the surface x-ray diffraction data set. We found that the C (60)-gold interface is structurally much more complex than the one previously suggested by scanning tunneling microscopy data [J. K. Gimzewski, S. Modesti, and R. R. Schlittler, Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 1036 (1994)]. Indeed a large fraction of Au surface atoms are displaced from their original positions producing microscopic pits that may accommodate the fullerene molecules.