Epitaxial Order Driven by Surface Corrugation: Quinquephenyl Crystals on a Cu(110)-(2×1)O Surface

Abstract

A 30 nm thick quinquephenyl (5P) film was grown by molecular beam deposition on a Cu(110)(2×1)O single crystal surface. The thin film morphology was studied by light microscopy and atomic force microscopy and the crystallographic structure of the thin film was investigated by X-ray diffraction methods. The 5P molecules crystallise epitaxially with (201)5P parallel to the substrate surface (110)Cu and with their long molecular axes parallel to [001]Cu. The observed epitaxial alignment cannot be explained by lattice matching calculations. Although a clear minimum in the lattice misfit exists, it is not adapted by the epitaxial growth of 5P crystals. Instead the formation of epitaxially oriented crystallites is determined by atomic corrugations of the substrate surface, such that the initially adsorbed 5P molecules fill with its rod-like shape the periodic grooves of the substrate. Subsequent crystal growth follows the orientation and alignment of the molecules taken within the initial growth stage.