The ability to understand and control the crystallisation of organic semiconductors is extremely useful for organic electronics applications. To demonstrate this kind of structural control, commensurate epitaxial monolayers of triangular truxenone molecules (on a Cu (111) surface) are employed to template the growth of monolayer and bilayer C60 thin films.

Through the combination of high resolution STM imaging and Low Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED) analysis we demonstrate that C60 forms a commensurate 8x8 overlayer on truxenone/Cu (111). Practically, this means that the symmetry and crystal structure of the C60 is forced to mirror that of the truxenone layers. Bilayers of C60 retain the 8x8 periodicity of templated monolayers and although so called 'Kagome' lattice arrangements are observed these are explained with combinations of simple hexagonal 8x8 symmetry.

See the full paper here: "Epitaxial Templating of C60 with a Molecular Monolayer" JPC letters, Just accepted