Iron phthalocyanine on Cu(111): Coverage-dependent assembly and symmetry breaking, temperature-induced homocoupling, and modification of the adsorbate-surface interaction by annealing.
We have examined the geometric and electronic structures of iron phthalocyanine assemblies on a Cu(111) surface at different sub- to mono-layer coverages and the changes induced by thermal annealing at temperatures between 250 and 320 °C by scanning tunneling microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and x-ray absorption spectroscopy. The symmetry breaking observed in scanning tunneling micros