Quantification of finite-temperature effects on adsorption geometries of $π$-conjugated molecules
cond-mat.mtrl-sci
/ Authors
G. Mercurio, R. J. Maurer, W. Liu, S. Hagen, F. Leyssner, P. Tegeder, J. Meyer, A. Tkatchenko, S. Soubatch, K. Reuter
and 1 more author
/ Abstract
The adsorption structure of the molecular switch azobenzene on Ag(111) is investigated by a combination of normal incidence x-ray standing waves and dispersion-corrected density functional theory. The inclusion of non-local collective substrate response (screening) in the dispersion correction improves the description of dense monolayers of azobenzene, which exhibit a substantial torsion of the molecule. Nevertheless, for a quantitative agreement with experiment explicit consideration of the effect of vibrational mode anharmonicity on the adsorption geometry is crucial.