Adsorption-induced surface stresses in alkanethiolate-au self-assembled monolayers

First-principles calculations were employed to elucidate the origin of adsorption-induced surface stresses in alkanethiolate self-assembled monolayers on an Au(111) surface. Our results suggest a mechanism that accounts for the huge relief of the tensile stress compared to the bare surface in terms of a local rearrangement of surface Au atoms accompanying charge removal from the surface towards the Au-S bond. A purely interadsorbate interaction model is shown to be inconsistent with the anisotropy and the magnitude of the calculated stress.