Highly oriented pyrolitic graphite anomalous structures and fullerenes self-assembly

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) was used to look for unusual self-structures on highly oriented pyrolitic graphite (HOPG) that can mimic fullerenes assemblies. HOPG features that may be taken as C₆₀ molecular structures were found on this surface. The HOPG self-structures have been presented earlier as anomalies of the bare HOPG surface in the literature. The experimental results are in agreement with earlier STM reports on bare and modified HOPG.