Eur. Phys. J. E (2012) 35: 25
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2012-12025-x

Regular Article

Simulating self-organized molecular patterns using interaction-site models

¹ Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics (ASC) and Center for NanoScience (CeNS), Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Theresienstraße 37, 80333, München, Germany
² Walther-Meißner Institute for Low Temperature Research and Center for NanoScience, Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Walther-Meißner Str. 8, 85748, Garching, Germany
³ Institut für Theoretische Physik, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Staudtstraße 7, 91058, Erlangen, Germany

^* e-mail: thomas.franosch@physik.uni-erlangen.de

Received: 9 November 2011
Revised: 1 March 2012
Accepted: 20 March 2012
Published online: 30 March 2012

Abstract

Molecular building blocks interacting at the nanoscale organize spontaneously into stable monolayers that display intriguing long-range ordering motifs on the surface of atomic substrates. The patterning process, if appropriately controlled, represents a viable route to manufacture practical nanodevices. With this goal in mind, we seek to capture the salient features of the self-assembly process by means of an interaction-site model. The geometry of the building blocks, the symmetry of the underlying substrate, and the strength and range of interactions encode the self-assembly process. By means of Monte Carlo simulations, we have predicted an ample variety of ordering motifs which nicely reproduce the experimental results. Here, we explore in detail the phase behavior of the system in terms of the temperature and the lattice constant of the underlying substrate.