Atomically resolved orientational ordering of C60 molecules on epitaxial graphene on Cu(111)

Abstract

A detailed understanding of interactions between molecules and graphene is one of the key issues for tailoring the properties of graphene-based molecular devices, because the electronic and structural properties of molecular layers on surfaces are determined by intermolecular and molecule–substrate interactions. Here, we present the atomically resolved experimental measurements of the self-assembled fullerene molecules on single-layer graphene on Cu(111). Fullerene molecules form a (4 × 4) superstructure on graphene/Cu(111), revealing only single molecular orientation. We can resolve the exact adsorption site and the configuration of fullerene by means of low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy (LT-STM) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The adsorption orientation can be explained in terms of the competition between intermolecular interactions and molecule–substrate interactions, where strong Coulomb interactions among the fullerenes determine the in-plane orientation of the fullerene. Our results provide important implications for developing carbon-based organic devices using a graphene template in the future.