Molecular Views of Structure, Properties, and Dynamics of Mixed Composition Self-Assembled Monolayers

Many possible applications of self-assembled monolayers have been proposed which depend strongly on the nanometer-scale properties of these films. We discuss the means by which we probe the nanometer-scale structural, dynamic, electronic, and chemical properties of these films using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and related techniques. While the means by which we can image these films non-perturbatively using STM remains controversial, we present experimental results which shed light on the capabilities of STM in gaining a molecular level understanding of these films.