Investigation of the Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Image, the Stacking Pattern and the Bias-voltage Dependent Structural Instability of 2,2'-Bipyridine Molecules Adsorbed on Au(111) in Terms of Electronic Structure Calculations

A self-assembled monolayer of 1,10'-phenanthroline (phen) molecules on Au(111) was found to undergo a structural phase transition when the bias voltage is switched in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments (Phys. Rev. Lett. 1995, 75, 2376; Surf. Sci. 1997, 389, 19). The nature of two bright spots representing each phen molecule in the high-resolution STM images of phen molecules on Au(111) was identified by calculating the partial density plots for a monolayer of phen molecules adsorbed on Au(111) with tight-binding electronic structure calculations. The stacking pattern of chains of phen molecules on Au(111) was explained by studying the intermolecular interactions between phen molecules on the basis of first-principles electronic structure calculations for a phen dimer, (phen)(2). The structural instability of phen molecule arrangement caused by the bias-voltage switch was probed by estimating the adsorbate-surface interaction energy with the point-charge approximation for Au(111).