STM tip-assisted engineering of molecular nanostructures: PTCDA islands on Ge(001):H surfaces

Abstract

Islands composed of perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) molecules are grown on a hydrogen passivated Ge(001):H surface. The islands are studied with room temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. The spontaneous and tip-induced formation of the top-most layer of the island is presented. Assistance of the scanning probe seems to be one of the factors that facilitate and speed the process of formation of the top-most layer.

Keywords

• molecular nanostructures
• scanning tunneling microscopy
• tip-induced processes