Pair Correlation Function of a 2D Molecular Gas Directly Visualized by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

The state of matter in fluid phases, determined by the interactions between particles, can be characterized by a pair correlation function (PCF). At the nanoscale, the PCF has been so far obtained experimentally only by means of reciprocal-space techniques. We use scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of physical chemistry letters 2017-09, Vol.8 (17), p.4268-4272
Main Authors: Matvija, P, Rozbořil, F, Sobotík, P, Ošt’ádal, I, Kocán, P
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:The state of matter in fluid phases, determined by the interactions between particles, can be characterized by a pair correlation function (PCF). At the nanoscale, the PCF has been so far obtained experimentally only by means of reciprocal-space techniques. We use scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) at room temperature in combination with lattice-gas kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations to study a two-dimensional gas of highly mobile molecules of fluorinated copper phthalocyanine on a Si(111)/Tl-(1×1) surface. A relatively slow mechanism of STM image acquisition results in time-averaging of molecular occurrence under the STM tip. We prove by the KMC simulations that in the proximity of fixed molecules STM images represent the PCF. We demonstrate that STM is capable of visualizing directly the pair correlation function in real space.
ISSN:1948-7185
1948-7185
DOI:10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b01965