Study of C60/Au(110) p(6x5) reconstruction from in-plane X-ray diffraction data

Fullerene molecules absorbed on the highly anisotropic Au110-p(1 X 2) surface induce an ordered p(6x5) superstructure that has been solved by applying the 2D "direct methods" difference sum function to the surface x-ray diffraction data set. We found that the C60-gold interface is structurally much more complex than the one previously suggested by scanning tunneling microscopy data [J. K. Gimzewski, S. Modesti, and R. R. Schlittler, Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 1036 (1994)]. Indeed a large fraction of Au surface atoms are displaced from their original positions producing microscopic pits that may accommodate the fullerene molecules.