Following a multi-technique approach, we could determine a planar growth of this molecule, with its long molecular axis oriented parallel to the surface and aligned along the [001] direction. The intermolecular side-by-side attraction results in the appearance of continuous stripes perpendicular to the [001] direction. Interestingly, we have observed that the molecules within the stripes show a 25º tilt around their long axis. As the coverage increases, the interstripe spacing decreases, up to the saturation of the first monolayer. Further deposition of the molecules occurs in a lying-down configuration at lest up to the third layer. The strong intermolecular attraction suggests an optimal charge mobility parallel to the substrate already form the first layer.
atomic model
These results have been published on «J. Phys. Chem. C 115, 4664-4672 (2011) «.
one pentacene monolayer on TiO2