Film growth of C59N on layered materials

C59N was evaporated in an UHV system onto substrates of the layered materials HOPG, WSe2 and mica at substrate temperatures of 25 °C, 100 °C and 200 °C. The initial growth of the C59N films was investigated by atomic force microscopy (UHV-AFM) and compared to that of C60. Distinct island sizes and shapes were observed for the three substrates, reflecting different mobilities and sticking factors. For C59N on HOPG and WSe2, extended dendritic islands are formed indicating a large mobility of C59N on the substrate and a strong sticking of the molecules to the islands edges. The mobility during the growth of the second monolayer is significantly reduced therefore, nearly independent of the substrate temperature, many new nucleation centres with distances as small as 50 nm are formed on top of the 1000–3000 nm monolayer islands. On mica, the nucleation centres have distances of 50–100 nm even for the first monolayer and substrate temperatures of 200 °C. This shows that the substrate interaction of C59N with m...