Self‐Guided Growth of Electronically Decoupled C60 on Graphene on Rh(110)

Abstract

Abstract The authors report on the behavior of C60 molecules adsorbed on graphene (Gr) monolayers grown on Rh(110), studied by means of scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy under ultra‐high vacuum conditions. Fullerene molecules form a well‐ordered close packed hexagonal layout with an intermolecular distance of ≈1 nm. As demonstrated from the experimental data, the molecular packing direction of C60 is locally close to being aligned with the quasi‐1D moiré patterns formed by graphene on the metal support. Moreover, for certain orientations of graphene on Rh(110), the underlying moiré pattern appears superimposed on the molecular assembly. However, the analysis of the highest occupied molecular orbital and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital structures and the differential conductance curves of C60 on Gr/Rh(110) suggest a weak molecule–substrate interaction, similar to other 2D material/metal interfaces. All these observations can imply that the moiré structures of Gr/Rh(110) play a central role in the arrangement of C60, but without modifying its electronic properties, which makes this Gr/Rh(110) system a singular platform for C60 adsorption. Complementarily, the structural properties of multilayer growth of C60 on Gr/Rh(110) are also investigated.

Keywords

• 2D materials
• fullerene
• molecular orbitals
• molecular self‐guided growth
• STM/STS
• symmetry mismatched substrates