title: Chiral distortion of confined ice oligomers (N = 5,6).
abstract: Ice nuclei have been studied on the hexagonal boron nitride nanomesh (h-BN/Rh(111)), a template with 2 nm wide molecule traps. Scanning tunneling microscopy shows confined clusters, where oligomers with three protrusions are particularly abundant. Together with local barrier height dI/dz maps, it is found that the dipoles of the water molecules arrange in a homodrome, which is consistent with density functional theory calculations. Hydrogen bonds toward the substrate identify h-BN/Rh(111) to be hydrophilic. The substrate distorts the hexamers (n = 6) and possibly pentamers (n = 5), where the experimentally observed footprints of the three protrusions appear more chiral than expected.
authors.affiliation: Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Haifeng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iannuzzi
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brugger
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Berner
authors.forename: Jürg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hutter
authors.forename: Jürg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Osterwalder
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Greber