D.V. Gruznev1, A.V. Matetskiy1, L.V. Bondarenko1, O.A. Utas1, A.V. Zotov1,2,3, A.A. Saranin1,2*,
J.P. Chou4, C.M. Wei4*, M.Y. Lai4 & Y.L. Wang4,5*
1 Institute of Automation and Control Processes, Vladivostok 690041, Russia.
2 School of Natural Sciences, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok 690950, Russia.
3 Department of Electronics, Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service, Vladivostok 690600, Russia.
4 Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, P.O. Box 23-166, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
5 Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
Nat. Commun. 4:1679 doi: 10.1038/ncomms2706 (2013)
Self-assembly of atoms or molecules on a crystal surface is considered one of the most promising methods to create molecular devices. Here we report a stepwise self-assembly of C60 molecules into islands with unusual shapes and preferred sizes on a gold-indium-covered Si(111) surface. Specifically, 19-mer islands prefer a non-compact boomerang shape, whereas hexagonal 37-mer islands exhibit extraordinarily enhanced stability and abundance. The stepwise self-assembly is mediated by the moiré interference between an island with its underlying lattice, which essentially maps out the adsorption-energy landscape of a C60 on different positions of the surface with a lateral magnification factor and dictates the probability for the subsequent attachment of C60 to an island's periphery. Our discovery suggests a new method for exploiting the moiré interference to dynamically assist the self-assembly of particles and provides an unexplored tactic of engineering atomic scale moiré magnifiers to facilitate the growth of monodispersed mesoscopic structures.