Intermolecular dehalogenation reactions on passivated germanium(001)

TL;DR

This study explores the formation of covalently bonded molecular nanostructures on passivated germanium(001) surfaces, demonstrating the feasibility and challenges of bottom-up nanostructure assembly on a semiconductor platform.

Contribution

It provides experimental insights into intermolecular dehalogenation reactions on passivated germanium, a more technologically relevant substrate, highlighting differences from noble metal surfaces.

Findings

Successful diffusion of organic molecules on Cl-passivated Ge(001)

Formation of covalently bonded molecules via thermal activation

Network quality is inferior to that on noble metal substrates

Abstract

We present results of experiments to reproduce the bottom-up formation of covalently bonded molecular nanostructures from single molecular building blocks, previously demonstrated on various coinage metal surfaces, on a technologically more relevant semiconductor surface: Ge(001). Chlorine was established as the most stable passivation agent for this surface, successfully enabling diffusion of the organic molecular building blocks. Subsequent thermal activation of the intermolecular dehalogenation reactions on this surface resulted in the desired covalently connected molecules, however showing poor network quality when compared to those formed on noble metal substrates.