MIES investigation of alkanethiol monolayers self-assembled on Au(111) and Ag(111) surfaces

Self-assembled monolayers of alkanethiols (SH(CH2)(m)CH3, m=7,8,9,11,15,17) have been prepared to study their electronic properties by means of metastable induced electron spectroscopy (MIES). The thermal metastable helium atoms used as projectiles in this technique interact exclusively with molecular orbitals exposed at the top of the film, which makes the method perfectly surface sensitive. Access of metastable helium atoms to the methyl group or to the CH2-groups of the alkyl chain depends strongly on the orientation of the molecular axis. The MIE-spectrum of nonanethiol on Au(111) and the MIE-spectrum of hexadecane physisorbed on graphite served as references for upright aligned and flat lying alkyl chains. Both MIE-spectra can be related to the electronic bandstructure of polyethylene. Electron emission originating from the upright methyl groups and flat lying CH2-groups is distinguished by characteristic intensities in the MIE-spectra. On this basis, a quantity R has been introduced as a measure for the molecular orientation of the alkyl chain at the top surface of the films. The evolution of R with respect to different molecular assemblies of the alkyl chains is consistent with XPS, LEED and UPS results. Within the series of dense and ordered alkanethiol films on gold and silver R decreases monotonously upon increasing the alkyl chain length. This behaviour indicates either the emergence of CH2-groups at the cost of methyl groups at the top surface or a decreasing degree of orientational order of the methyl groups or both in the case of longer alkyl chains.