“…The height difference between the bright and dark terraces was observed to be ∼2.4 Å, which is corresponding to a monatomic step height of the underlying Au(111) substrate. Therefore, the dark regions can be considered as vacancy islands that were usually observed for chemisorbed monolayer derived from organic molecules containing sulfur and selenium headgroups. ,,,,− For this reason, it is also clear that the bright domains with a striped phase are not due to the existence of multilayer. Vacancy islands with large lateral dimensions larger than 40 nm (Figure a) were formed as a result of the thermal healing effect, which has been usually observed for thiol SAMs. ,,,,,, Interestingly, small ordered domains with tridirectional orientations were also clearly observed inside large vacancy islands (indicated by a white line).…”