Dispersion Interactions Enable the Self-Directed Growth of Linear Alkane Nanostructures Covalently Bound to Silicon

Current interest in methods for controllably adding organic molecules to silicon surfaces relates to proposed hybrid silicon-organic devices. It was recently shown that a "self-directed" growth process, requiring only limited scanned probe intervention, has the potential to permit rapid, parallel production of ordered molecular nanostructures on silicon with predefined absolute position, structure, composition, and extent of growth. The hybrid …