Self-assembly of L-tryptophan on Cu(111) studied by low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy

The self-assembly of L-tryptophan on Cu(111) is investigated by an ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscope(STM) at 4.4 K.When deposited onto the substrate at around 120 K with a coverage of 0.1 monolayer,molecular trimers,tetramers,hexamers,and chains coexist on Cu(111).Then almost all molecules self-assemble into chiral hexamers after being annealed at room temperature.When increasing molecular coverage to the full layer,a new type of chain is observed on the surface.Based on the high-resolution STM images at sub-molecular level,we suggest that the L-tryptophan molecules are present in neutral,zwitterionic or anionic states in these structures.