title: Microscopic origin of chiral shape induction in achiral crystals.
abstract: In biomineralization, inorganic materials are formed with remarkable control of the shape and morphology. Chirality, as present in the biomolecular world, is therefore also common for biominerals. Biomacromolecules, like proteins and polysaccharides, are in direct contact with the mineral phase and act as modifiers during nucleation and crystal growth. Owing to their homochirality--they exist only as one of two possible mirror-symmetric isomers--their handedness is often transferred into the macroscopic shape of the biomineral crystals, but the way in which handedness is transmitted into achiral materials is not yet understood at the atomic level. By using the submolecular resolution capability of scanning tunnelling microscopy, supported by photoelectron diffraction and density functional theory, we show how the chiral 'buckybowl' hemibuckminsterfullerene arranges copper surface atoms in its vicinity into a chiral morphology. We anticipate that such new insight will find its way into materials synthesis techniques.
authors.affiliation: Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Überlandstrasse 129, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland.|Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190 Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wende
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Überlandstrasse 129, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland.|Department of Chemistry, University Zürich, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Karl-Heinz
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.affiliation: Department of Theoretical Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Krisztian
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Palotas
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190 Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yuyang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: CNR-SPIN, I-67010 L'Aquila, Italy.
authors.forename: Emilie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bruyer
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Merkert Chemistry Center, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467-3860, USA.
authors.forename: Lingqing
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University Zürich, 8006 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Greber
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE1 7RU, UK.
authors.forename: Werner A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Hofer
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Merkert Chemistry Center, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467-3860, USA.
authors.forename: Lawrence T
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.affiliation: Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Überlandstrasse 129, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland.|Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Universität Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Roman
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1553-6487
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fasel