The monomer-to-dimer transition and bimodal growth of Co-salen on NaCl(001): a high resolution atomic force microscopy study

Molecules of Co-salen, a paramagnetic metal-organic Schiff base complex, self-assemble into two different well ordered morphologies on a NaCl(001) substrate: nanowires, which form networks, and compact nanocrystallites. Their growth can be controlled by adjusting the deposition parameters. It turns out that the nanowires are metastable. Molecular resolution images suggest that the packing in both morphologies is the same as in bulk Co-salen single crystals. Only the orientation of the c-axis with respect to the substrate is different. The origin of this intriguing bimodal growth is associated with a monomer-to-dimer transition, which probably takes place during initial nucleation at step edges.