Self-assembled organic donor/acceptor nanojunction arrays

We have fabricated well-ordered organic donor/acceptor nanojunction arrays comprising p-sexiphenyl (6P) and C-60 via self-assembly of C-60 on the molecular nanotemplate of 6P nanostripes on Ag(111). Our scanning tunneling microscopy measurements show that the preferential trapping of C-60 triplets atop 6P single molecule leads to the formation of the C-60/6P vertical nanojunctions with well-defined two-dimensional arrangement. Annealing this binary molecular superstructure at 380 K results in the insertion of C-60 linear chains between the neighboring 6P nanostripes and thereby the appearance of the periodic C-60/6P lateral nanojunction arrays. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.