Room‐Temperature Electronic Template Effect of the SmSi(111)‐8×2 Interface for Self‐Alignment of Organic Molecules

This work describes an innovative concept for the development of organized molecular systems based on the template effect of the pre‐structured semi‐conductive SmSi(111) interface. This substrate is selected because Sm deposition in the submonolayer range leads to a 8×2‐reconstruction, which is a well‐defined one‐dimensional semi‐metallic structure. Adsorption of aromatic molecules [1,4‐di‐(9‐ethynyltriptycenyl)‐benzene] on SmSi(111)‐ 8×2 and Si(111)‐7×7 interfaces is investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) at room temperature. Density functional theory (DFT) and semi‐empirical (ASED+) calculations define the nature of the molecular adsorption sites of the target molecule on SmSi as well as their self‐alignment on this interface. Experimental data and theoretical results are in good agreement.