SnPc on Ag(111): A Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Study at the Submolecular Level

The adsorption of nonplanar tin-phthalocyanine (SnPc) molecules on a Ag(111) single crystal in the submonolayer regime was investigated. The formation of equivalent well-oriented “chess-board” like superstructures was observed as a result of the two possible molecular conformational adsorptions: “ up ” and “ down ”. Different types of molecule–molecule and molecule–substrate interactions were probed using tip-induced molecular diffusion via single-molecule switching. Submolecular features were emphasized using extremely low voltage-dependent scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) imaging to address the coupling of molecules to the metal surface states.