Gently lifting gold's herringbone reconstruction: Trimethylphosphine on Au(111)

Alkane thiol self-assembled monolayers form the backbone of many surface technologies but the true complexity of these molecule-metal interfaces has only recently been realized. Here we report a phosphine-based system that self-assembles with surface restructuring that is markedly different than that observed with thiols. Our results reveal the atomic-scale mechanism by which trimethylphosphine removes gold’s native reconstruction but, unlike thiols, stops short of removing further surface atoms. Our results also suggest that self-assembly may be controlled and improved by adjusting the molecule-metal bond strength.