Study of C60/Au(110)-p(6 × 5) Reconstruction from In-Plane X-Ray Diffraction Data

Fullerene molecules absorbed on the highly anisotropic Au(110)-p(1 × 2) surface induce an ordered p(6 × 5) 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. Indeed a large fraction of Au surface atoms are displaced from their original positions producing microscopic pits that may accommodate the fullerene molecules.