Abstract
Poor control of the interactions that govern organic molecular growth continues to hinder the prospect of organic electronic nano- architectures. Particularly, a selective mechanism for tuning the molecule-substrate interaction has been a long sought after goal towards tailored molecular growth. Here, combining scanning tun- neling microscopy and density functional theory we show that by controlling the strength of orbital hybridization between phthalo- cyanine molecules and the deactivated Si surface via the selective p-d orbital coupling, we can tune the molecular ordering and molecular orientation at the hetero-interface. This mechanism offers a novel approach to balance the critical interactions, leading to controlled long-ranged ordered molecular growth that can be incorporated into modern electronics.
