title: Experimental and theoretical investigations on the epitaxial growth of 4,4(') stilbenedicarboxylic acid molecules on Au(111).
abstract: We report on scanning tunneling microscope observations of the epitaxial growth of 4,4(') stilbenedicarboxylic acid (SDA) molecules on Au(111), with the coverage ranges from submonolayer to one monolayer. The surface assembly evolves from one-dimensional molecular chains to striped islands and finally monolayer films. For two-dimensional assembly, the head-to-tail hydrogen bonding is found to dominate the molecule-molecule interactions. Each linking region of the SDA molecular chains consists of two hydrogen bonds. This is confirmed by our first-principles calculations where the hydrogen bond length, hydrogen bond energy, and SDA-Au interaction energy are deduced theoretically. Moreover, the configurations with interchain hydrogen bonds are energetically unstable. The roles of the herringbone reconstruction of Au(111) and the compression effect of a complete film on the formation of molecular ribbons are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, Katahira 2-1-1, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan.
authors.forename: Yan Feng
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yoshiyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kawazoe
authors.forename: Tadahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Komeda