Assembly Process and Epitaxy of the F16CuPc Monolayer on Cu(111)

Assembly process and epitaxy of a perfluorinated copper-phthalocyanine (F 16 CuPc) monolayer on a Cu(111) surface were investigated. Observation using a scanning tunneling microscope revealed that the monolayer is formed by a two-step process: at an early stage, the molecules are preferentially adsorbed along step edges forming one-dimensional domains where the in-plane orientation is determined by the step direction, and this is followed by formation of two-dimensional ordered arrays on terraces. The two-step process caused coexistence of two distinct assemblies, referred to as “step phase” and “terrace phase”. The molecules in the terrace phase were found to have an epitaxial relation with the Cu(111) lattice orientation.