Characterization and modification of conducting substrates for ultrathin organic films by scanning tunneling microscopy

Communication: The structure of an organic film of molecular thickness depends strongly on the surface properties of the underlying substrate. STM is a method which enables a substrate surface to be characterized and controlled as demonstrated in the figure, where the letter “U” etched with an STM tip into a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surface is shown. The holes, which are around 5 nm in diameter, could serve as nucleation sites for an organic adsorbate phase. magnified image