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Template-directed assembly of pentacene molecules on epitaxial graphene on Ru(0001)

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Abstract

The template-directed assembly of planar pentacene molecules on epitaxial graphene grown on Ru(0001) (G/Ru) has been investigated by means of low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. STM experiments find that pentacene adopts a highly selective and dispersed growth mode in the initial stage. By using DFT calculations including van der Waals interactions, we find that the configuration with pentacene adsorbed on face-centered cubic (fcc) regions of G/Ru is the most stable one, which accounts for the selective adsorption at low coverage. Moreover, at high coverage, we have successfully controlled the molecular assembly from amorphous, local ordering, to long-range order by optimizing the deposition rate and substrate temperature.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Haitao Zhou, Lizhi Zhang, Jinhai Mao, Geng Li, Yi Zhang, Yeliang Wang, Shixuan Du & Hong-Jun Gao

  2. Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX, UK

    Werner A. Hofer

Authors
  1. Haitao Zhou
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  2. Lizhi Zhang
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  3. Jinhai Mao
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  4. Geng Li
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  5. Yi Zhang
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  9. Hong-Jun Gao
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Correspondence to Shixuan Du or Hong-Jun Gao.

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Zhou, H., Zhang, L., Mao, J. et al. Template-directed assembly of pentacene molecules on epitaxial graphene on Ru(0001). Nano Res. 6, 131–137 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-013-0288-8

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