C₆₀adsorption on an aperiodically modulated Cu surface

Abstract

Copper deposited on the five-fold surface of icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn forms domains of a structure whose surface has a one-dimensional aperiodic modulation. It is shown that C60 deposited on this aperiodic film has highly reduced mobility as compared to C60 deposited on periodic Cu surfaces. This finding is explained in terms of the recently proposed structural model of this system.

Templated Quasicrystalline Molecular Ordering

“…19 Up to now, previous attempts have been unsuccessful. [20][21][22][23] In this work we demonstrate two examples of templated growth of quasicrystalline molecular layers. C 60 on face-centered icosahedral Al-Cu-Fe and Pn on simple icosahedral Ag-In-Yb form extended quasicrystalline networks with well-defined nucleation sites.…”

Thin Film Growth on Quasicrystalline Surfaces

“…The vicinal structure means that the main features (i.e., the steps and terraces) are not evident until the film itself is a few Å deep, which explains the emergent behavior observed in the STM data. It also provides a neat explanation for the fact that hexagonal islands are not observed when C 60 is adsorbed on this structure,33 in comparison to other quasiperiodic surfaces where C 60 forms such islands 34. The obvious explanation is that the step edges provide a highly reactive adsorption site with a high electron density; the diffusion necessary for island formation does not occur.…”

Effective substrate potentials with quasicrystalline symmetry depend on the size of the adsorbed particles

“…In order to minimize the discontinuities of the potential at the boundaries of the box, a so-called rational approximant [37] of the potential is implemented. Accordingly, the edge lengths L x and L y of the simulation box are chosen such that L x /a V = 2n and L y /a V = m/ sin(π/5), where n and m are Fibonacci numbers, i.e., (n, m) ∈ {(8, 13), (13,21), (21,34), (34,55), . .…”

“…Deposition of atoms or molecules on surfaces of quasicrystals can lead to monolayers with a large variety of complex quasicrystalline orderings (for reviews see, e.g., [2][3][4]). A lot of different adatoms or deposited molecules were explored in recent years, including, e.g., antimony and bismuth [5], copper [6], silicon [7], xenon [8], lead [9,10], hydrocarbons [11,12], or fullerenes [13,14]. Similarly, vortices in type-II superconductors can be pinned onto a quasicrystalline pattern [15].…”