Field ion-scanning tunneling microscopy study of c₈₄ on the si(100) surface

Initial stage and monolayer/multilayer adsorption of C₈₄ fullerene on the Si(100)2 x 1 surface was investigated by field ion-scanning tunneling microscopy. The C₈₄ molecules reside stably at room temperature in the trough formed by Si dimer rows. The nearest neighbour distance of the C₈₄ molecules is approximately 14 A. For the first and second layers, only the disordered adsorption geometry was observed. When C₈₄ was deposited while keeping the substrate at 100 to 150 °C, the fee crystal formation was observed above the third layer with its lattice constant of 17.1 A.