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Letter| June 22 2004

Mesoscopic chiral reshaping of the Ag(110) surface induced by the organic molecule PVBA

J. I. Pascual;

J. I. Pascual

Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, D-14195 Berlin, Germany

Institut für Experimentalphysik, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 14, D-14195 Berlin, Germany

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J. V. Barth;

J. V. Barth

Institut de Physique des Nanostructures, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Advanced Materials Process and Engineering Laboratory, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada

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G. Ceballos;

G. Ceballos

Fritz-Haber-Institute der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, D-14195 Berlin, Germany

Laboratorio Nazionale TASC-INFM, Area Science Park, Basovizza S.S. 14, Km 163.5, I-34012 Trieste, Italy

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G. Trimarchi;

G. Trimarchi

Physics Department, King’s College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom

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A. De Vita;

A. De Vita

Physics Department, King’s College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom, Center of Excellence for Nanostructured Materials (CENMAT), Trieste, Italy

and INFM-DEMOCRITOS National Simulation Center, Trieste, Italy

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K. Kern;

K. Kern

Institut de Physique des Nanostructures, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany

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H.-P. Rust

H.-P. Rust

Fritz-Haber-Institute der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, D-14195 Berlin, Germany

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J. Chem. Phys. 120, 11367–11370 (2004)

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1763836

We report scanning tunneling microscopy observations on the restructuring of a Ag(110) surface induced by the molecule 4-[trans-2-(pyrid-4-yl-vinyl)]benzoic acid (PVBA). Our data reveal that the surface undergoes a mesoscopic step faceting following exposure to submonolayer coverages and thermal activation. A sawtooth arrangement evolves implying long-range mass transport of substrate atoms and forming a regular arrangement of kink sites. Its formation is associated with the molecules’ functional headgroups forming carboxylates with {100} Ag microfacets at step edges, and eventually operating to reshape the surface morphology. Interestingly, the resulting microfacets act as chiral templates for the growth of supramolecular PVBA structures. Theoretical modeling based on ab initio results indicates that chiral recognition processes discriminating between the two enantiomers of adsorbed PVBA molecules occur in this process.

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© 2004 American Institute of Physics.

2004

American Institute of Physics

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