2024/10/25 by Yan Wang, Niklas Grabicki, Wang, Yan +21
Engineering · #Nanofabrication and Lithography Techniques
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2410.19466
The fabrication of well-defined, low-dimensional diamondoid-based materials is a promising approach for tailoring diamond properties such as superconductivity. On-surface self-assembly of halogenated diamondoids under ultrahigh vacuum conditions represents an effective strategy in this direction, enabling reactivity exploration and on-surface synthesis approaches. Here we demonstrate through scanning probe microscopy, time-of-flight mass spectrometry and photoelectron spectroscopy, that self-assembled layers of dibromodiamantanes on gold can be debrominated at atomic wavelengths (Al Kα at 8.87 \mathringA and Mg Kα at 9.89 \mathringA) and low temperatures without affecting their well-defined arrangement. The resulting 'in-architecture' debromination enables the fabrication of diamantane chains from self-assembled precursors in close proximity, which is otherwise inaccessible through annealing on metal surfaces. Our work introduces a novel approach for the fabrication of nanodiamond chains, with significant implications for in-architecture and layer-by-layer synthesis.