Figure 1.
Tetra‐azo islands on Ag(111). a) Molecular structure of the trans and cis isomers of azobenzene (calculated by HyperChem). b) Chemical formula of the tetra(azobenzene)methane species, adsorbed on an atomically flat surface, with all its four azobenzene units in the trans configuration. c) STM image of several self‐assembled hexamers with respect to the underlying Ag(111) lattice (indicated by gray dots), as identified by imaging a small area near the cluster with atomic resolution (see Figure S4). d) Sketch of a possible assembly. The Ag lattice unit cell is plotted in gray. Surface symmetry directions are shown in (c,d) by arrows. e) STM image (544×544 Å2, 1 V, 6 pA) of a tetra‐azo island consisting of bright and dark lobes (see Figure S5 for details). f) Height profile (along the dashed line in (e)) revealing the characteristic apparent heights of bright and dark lobes. g,h) STM images (50×50 Å2, 0.5 V, 5 pA) of hexamers of both chiralities.