Charge-induced distortion and stabilization of surface transfer doped porphyrin films.

The interaction between zinc-tetraphenylporphyrin (ZnTPP) and fullerenes (C60 and C60F48) are studied using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Low temperature STM reveals highly ordered ZnTPP monolayers on Au(111). In contrast to C60, a submonolayer coverage of C60F48 results in long-range disorder of the underlying single ZnTPP layer and distortion of individual ZnTPP molecules. This is induced by substantial charge transfer at the organic-organic interface, revealed by the interface energetics from UPS. However, a second layer of ZnTPP prevents C60F48 guests from breaking the self-assembled porphyrin template. This finding is important for understanding the growth behaviour of "bottom-up" functional nanostructures involving strong donor-acceptor heterojunctions in molecular electronics.