Study of the electronic and atomic structure of tetraphenyl porfirin nanoribbons self-assembled on vicinal surfaces

Abstract

Low dimensional systems, for instance periodic nanostructures supported on surfaces, are of great interest for technological applications and represents scientific challenges. Well-ordered nanostructured systems showing long-range periodicity can be obtained by self-assembling methods in predefined templates such as the vicinal surfaces. Particularly, organometallic systems in the scale of few nanometers can be efficiently synthesized using the so-called Self-Assembling of Molecules (SAM) . Several organometallic molecules from the group of the phthalocyanines and porfirins are extremely interesting for technological applications, where is possible to create, in a bottom-up approach, devices such as organic LEDs, opto-electronic systems, organic voltaic solar-cells, and sensor for different applications. In this master thesis project, we intend to grow organometallic nanoribbons of tetraphenyl porfirin (metallic and non-metallic) self-assembled on vicinal metal surfaces, such as Au(788). The systematic investigation of the electronic and atomic structure of the surfaces will be based on photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) as well as scanning tunneling microscopy experiments, performed in our group facilities at the IFGW. To help in the interpretation of the STM images and the electronic structure experimentally obtained, we intend to start ab-initio simulations based on the DFT approach. (AU)