Figure 1

(Color online) STM images showing 0.62 ML TMP on Au(111); the system has been annealed to 220 K. Line scans, each traversing a single island and a monatomic step edge, indicate that the islands are one gold atom high. Scale $\text{bars}=10\text{nm}$. Imaging conditions: 78 K, (a) 500 pA, 500 mV and (b) 300 pA, 200 mV.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 2

(Color online) Images of clean Au (top left) and 1.0 ML trimethylphosphine on Au annealed to 220 K (top right), and accompanying line scans (bottom). The plot shows line scans taken over the indicated portion indicated on both the unmodified (black) and modified (green/gray) surfaces. Both plots show the corrugation of Au’s herringbone reconstruction in which the soliton walls are slightly higher than the rest of the surface. The plot from the modified surface also shows the corrugation due to the molecular layer which dominates the z scale making the topographic height modulation due to the soliton walls harder to see in the line scan. Scale $\text{bars}=10\text{nm}$. Image conditions: 78 K, (left) 2 nA, 50 mV and (right) 300 pA, 200 mV.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 3

(Color online) Several STM images showing 1.0 ML TMP on Au(111); the system has been annealed to 220 K. The molecules form a dense, hexagonally packed layer with a $\left(\surd 7\times \surd 7\right)R\pm 19°$ unit cell, as shown in the high-resolution inset in (a). 2D Fourier transform analysis—image inset in (b)—supports this unit-cell assignment. These large-scale images reveal that the unit cell of the herringbone reconstruction is larger than on clean Au(111) and that Au islands appear at the positions once occupied by hcp domains. Scale $\text{bars}=10\text{nm}$. Imaging conditions: 78 K, 300 pA and 200 mV.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 4

(Color online) STM images showing TMP on Au(111). The initial coverage system (Fig. 3) was annealed to (a) 300 K and (b) 350 K, resulting in 0.90 ML and 0.88 ML coverages, respectively. In the systems, the Au adatoms originating from the herringbone have a longer diffusion path and coalesce to form large islands. The plot inset in (b) shows the evolution of the herringbone spacing as a function of anneal temperature; the dashed line indicates Au’s native herringbone spacing of 6.34 nm. Scale $\text{bars}=10\text{nm}$. Imaging conditions: 78 K, (a) 300 pA and 200 mV and (b) 200 pA and 200 mV.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 5

(Color online) Plot showing percent Au island coverage (red circles) and average island size (blue diamonds) as a function of molecular coverage. As molecular coverage increases, the island coverage increases but the island size decreases. These data indicate that island growth is a kinetically limited process dictated by molecular coverage.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 6

(Color online) Histograms of Au adatom islands sizes for each of the four trimethylphosphine-Au(111) system studied.Reuse & Permissions