Fig. 5: Model of the structure underlying the molecular monolayers.

a, b Simulation of the molecular monolayer on the terrace and step edge in top view, side view, and the simulated STM images, U_bias = 2 V. c High-resolution topography of the molecular monolayer on the flat silver surface. While the primitive unit cell is depicted in red, the conventional unit cell that resembles the underlying geometry by taking into account the quadratic structure of the silver lattice is shown in orange. d High-resolution topography giving access to the orientation of the molecules within the primitive unit cell, framed in red. For comparison, the conventional unit cell is indicated in orange. e A simple model showing the orientation of the molecules within the conventional unit cell as identified on basis of STM data. The primitive and the conventional unit cell are framed in red and orange, respectively. The tunneling parameters for all topographies were T = 80 K, I_set = 50 pA, and U_bias = 1 V.