SUBSTRATE-INDUCED ORDERING OF MOLECULAR ADSORBATES ON AU(111)

Adsorbed monolayers of [Ru(bpy)2(bpy-(CH2)x-bpy)]2+ (x = 4 and 5) on the unreconstructed square-root 3 x 22 reconstructed surfaces of Au(111) were imaged by scanning tunneling microscopy in dimethylformamide. On the reconstructed surface, the adsorbed films display highly ordered patterns that are commensurate with the measured corrugation patterns of the substrate. In contrast, when adsorption is on the atomically smooth unreconstructed surface, STM images reveal a random spatial distribution of [Ru(bpy)2(bpy-(CH2)x-bpy)]2+.