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Updated: May 28, 2026
Fabrication of Gate-tunable Graphene Devices for Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Studies with Coulomb Impurities
Published on: July 24, 2015
Intermolecular vs molecule-substrate interactions: A combined STM and theoretical study of supramolecular phases on
Michael Roos1, Benedikt Uhl, Daniela Künzel
1Institute of Surface Chemistry and Catalysis, Ulm University, D-89069 Ulm, Germany.
Abstract:
The competition between intermolecular interactions and long-range lateral variations in the substrate-adsorbate interaction was studied by scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and force field based calculations, by comparing the phase formation of (sub-) monolayers of the organic molecules (i) 2-phenyl-4,6-bis(6-(pyridin-3-yl)-4-(pyridin-3-yl)pyridin-2-yl)pyrimidine (3,3'-BTP) and (ii) 3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic-dianhydride (PTCDA) on graphene/Ru(0001). For PTCDA adsorption, a 2D adlayer phase was formed, which extended over large areas, while for 3,3'-BTP adsorption linear or ring like structures were formed, which exclusively populated the areas between the maxima of the moiré structure of the buckled graphene layer. The consequences for the competing intermolecular interactions and corrugation in the adsorption potential are discussed and compared with the theoretical results.
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