Scanning tunneling microscopy of endohedral metallofullerene Tb@C-82 on C-60 film and Si(100) 2 x 1 surface

Abstract

Endohedral metallofullerene Tb@C-82 molecules adsorbed on the C-60 film and Si(100) 2 x 1 have been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The C-60 film was obtained by depositing 2-3 monolayers (ML) of C-60 molecules on a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surface. Tb@C-82 molecules have great mobility and aggregate along the edges of terraces on the C-60 film, and form a close-packing monolayer with increasing coverage. Very few trimers or dimers were imaged on the surface of C-60 film. In contrast, the Tb@C82 Molecules were randomly distributed on the surface of Si(100). These nucleation behaviors of Tb@C-82 molecules can be explained by the interaction of Tb@C-82-Si and Tb@C-82-Tb@C-82 that were brought on by the permanent dipole moment of Tb@C-82 Molecules.