The growth and ordering of {5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-bromophenyl)porphyrinato}nickel(II) (NiTBrPP) molecules on the Au(111) surface have been investigated using scanning tunnelling microscopy, X-ray absorption, core-level photoemission, and microbeam low-energy electron diffraction. When deposited onto the substrate at room temperature, the NiTBrPP forms a well-ordered close-packed molecular layer in which the molecules have a flat orientation with the porphyrin macrocycle plane lying parallel to the substrate. Annealing of the NiTBrPP layer on the Au(111) surface at 525 K leads to dissociation of bromine from the porphyrin followed by the formation of covalent bonds between the phenyl substituents of the porphyrin. This results in the formation of continuous covalently bonded porphyrin networks, which are stable up to 800 K and can be recovered after exposure to ambient conditions. By controlling the experimental conditions, a robust, extended porphyrin network can be prepared on the Au(111) surface that has many potential applications such as protective coatings, in sensing or as a host structure for molecules and clusters.

A strong molecule-surface interaction between free-base-tetra(4-bromophenyl)-porphyrin and Cu(111) results in a distortion of both the molecule and the underlying copper surface in the vicinity of the molecule. This in turn leads to the formation of an intermediate complex due to bonding between the iminic nitrogens and surface copper atoms.

A Ni-Cu ion exchange has been observed for (5,15-dibromo-10,20-diphenylporphyrinato)nickel(II) (NiDBrDPP) and (5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-bromophenyl)porphyrinato)nickel(II) (NiTBrPP) on Cu(111). The ion exchange proceeds at a faster rate for the NiDBrDPP/Cu(111) system compared to NiTBrPP/Cu(111). This is explained in terms of the macrocycle-substrate distance and the distortions that occur when the molecules are deposited on the Cu(111) surface.

Covalent organic networks derived from surface-mediated self-assembly of 1,3,5-tris(4-bromophenyl)benzene into two-dimensional networks on Au(111) have been studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and by X-ray spectroscopic methods. High resolution soft X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (SXPS) using synchrotron radiation have been used to study the formation of the 1,3,5-tris(4-bromophenyl)benzene-derived 2D networks by observing temperature-dependent C 1s and Br 3d core level XPS spectra. X-ray absorption (XA) measurements of the formation of these 2D networks have been obtained at the C K-edge where their temperature and angular dependence are examined. The results of these XPS and XA spectroscopic measurements are compared to detailed ab initio electronic structure calculations of 1,3,5-tris(4-bromophenyl)benzene molecules to aid the interpretation of the features of these spectra.

Removing the ultrathin native oxide layer from silicon-on-insulator (SOI) without damaging the Si device layer poses several processing challenges, the main one being the maintenance of the device layer integrity during oxide layer removal. In order to address this challenge and find a low thermal budget process, the thermal decomposition of the ultrathin native oxide in ultrahigh vacuum has been investigated using scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The evolving morphology and chemical composition of the ultrathin oxide and the SOI device layer were investigated as a function of anneal temperature and duration. Multiple anneal cycles at 750 °C, each lasting for 30–90 s, was found to be an effective method of desorbing the oxide without causing dewetting of the device layer. The total amount of carbon present on the sample was not altered significantly by thermal treatment; however, a change in the chemical composition of the carbon was noted. A simple oxygen plasma-based ex situ cleaning step before annealing was found to be effective in reducing the density of SiC on the annealed sample while keeping the annealed surface atomically smooth.