TY - JOUR
T1 - Low coverage disordered decanethiol monolayers on Au(001)
T2 - A conjecture regarding the formation of Au-adatom-molecule complexes
AU - Tsvetanova, Martina
AU - Syromyatnikov, Alexey G.
AU - Zandvliet, Harold J.W.
AU - Klavsyuk, Andrey L.
AU - Sotthewes, Kai
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Dr. H. Wu for the fruitful discussions. M. Tsvetanova, K. Sotthewes, and H. J. W. Zandvliet acknowledge the Nederlandse organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) for the provided financial support. The density functional theory calculations were performed using the equipment of the shared research facilities of HPC computing resources at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. Calculations of this study was financially supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 21-72-20034). The authors also acknowledge the support of dr. Y. Bu from the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology Nanolab, Enschede, the Netherlands , for performing the XPS measurement presented in the supplementary information of this paper.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Dr. H. Wu for the fruitful discussions. M. Tsvetanova, K. Sotthewes, and H. J. W. Zandvliet acknowledge the Nederlandse organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) for the provided financial support. The density functional theory calculations were performed using the equipment of the shared research facilities of HPC computing resources at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. Calculations of this study was financially supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 21-72-20034). The authors also acknowledge the support of dr. Y. Bu from the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology Nanolab, Enschede, the Netherlands, for performing the XPS measurement presented in the supplementary information of this paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)
PY - 2022/8/30
Y1 - 2022/8/30
N2 - We present a scanning tunneling microscopy study of decanethiol on Au(001) in the low coverage regime. As expected, the hex reconstruction is lifted, however, no ordered decanethiol phases form. We observe large areas free of Au islands and covered with a disordered decanethiol phase. I(t) spectroscopy measurements suggest that this disordered phase is dynamic and most likely comprises diffusing Au adatoms, decanethiol molecules, and/or Au-adatom-decanethiol molecule complexes. We have performed density functional theory calculations and show that the activation barrier for diffusion is lower when Au-adatom-molecule complexes are considered in comparison to the case of bare molecule. These findings suggest that although no vacancy pits form on Au(001), Au-adatoms expelled during the lifting of the hex reconstruction may be still important for the diffusion of thiol molecules on this surface.
AB - We present a scanning tunneling microscopy study of decanethiol on Au(001) in the low coverage regime. As expected, the hex reconstruction is lifted, however, no ordered decanethiol phases form. We observe large areas free of Au islands and covered with a disordered decanethiol phase. I(t) spectroscopy measurements suggest that this disordered phase is dynamic and most likely comprises diffusing Au adatoms, decanethiol molecules, and/or Au-adatom-decanethiol molecule complexes. We have performed density functional theory calculations and show that the activation barrier for diffusion is lower when Au-adatom-molecule complexes are considered in comparison to the case of bare molecule. These findings suggest that although no vacancy pits form on Au(001), Au-adatoms expelled during the lifting of the hex reconstruction may be still important for the diffusion of thiol molecules on this surface.
KW - Au(001)
KW - Au-adatom
KW - Decanethiol
KW - DFT
KW - Diffusion
KW - STM
KW - UT-Hybrid-D
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129144952&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.apsusc.2022.153364
DO - 10.1016/j.apsusc.2022.153364
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85129144952
SN - 0169-4332
VL - 594
JO - Applied surface science
JF - Applied surface science
M1 - 153364
ER -