Fullerene (C₆₀) adsorption and films growth on the (√3x√3) and (3x3) surface of 6H SiC(0001)

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) was used to study the C₆₀ adsorption on the Si rich (3x3) and C rich (√3x√3) surface of 6H-SiC(0001). At room temperature, triangular or hexagonal islands commensurating to the substrate structure at submonlayer coverages were observed. One of the interesting observations was the nucleation of the second layer of the C₆₀ molecules even at submonlayer coverages. On the (3x3) surface, multilayer growth of C₆₀ with the close-packed fcc(111) structure was observed: while on the (√3x√3) surface, for coverage higher than 1 ML, disordered surface morphology was observed. Epitaxial growth of SiC was also achieved using C₆₀ as carbon source on 6H-SiC(0001) surfaces.