Background:

• Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany, 2005-2008
• Research Fellowship Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, 2005-2007

The focus of our work is to explore functional nanometer-scale architectures at surfaces formed by self-assembly of organic building blocks. The research in our lab combines the understanding of growth kinetics and materials characterization of physical and analytical chemistry with the rich building block library and supramolecular organization schemes of organic and inorganic chemistry. Efficient patterning of solid surfaces with organic materials is a challenging research problem that has the potential to open up new opportunities and new technologies in many fields, including molecular electronics, catalysis, molecular recognition/sensors and magnetism.

Our experiments are made in extremely clean and well-controlled vacuum chambers. Starting with atomically clean and flat surfaces, we sublimate molecular "building blocks" onto the surfaces from heated crucibles. We can control the deposition rate and final concentration of each component on the surface as well as the surface temperature during and after deposition. Thermal energy from the surface allows for diffusive motion of the molecular components so that they can assemble themselves into highly ordered two-dimensional structures. An exciting aspect to surface-supported studies of these model architectures is their accessibility for direct structural and electronic characterization with single molecule resolution using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Insight gained at the local level - a direct view into the molecular world - combined with integral techniques, such as photoelectron spectroscopy, expands our understanding of the fundamental interactions that determine the function of these systems.

In these highly controlled conditions we can directly observe interesting phenomena of the growth process, and characterize in a controlled way the functional aspects and chemical properties of the structures - and most importantly how we can tune those properties by selection of the organic components. In these model systems we can "tweak" the system in several directions - changing metal centers, organic ligand modification, surface interaction, growth conditions - and observe how the supramolecular networks respond structurally and with regard to function.

Our current projects are focusing on the construction of such supramolecular networks on technologically relevant surfaces. We are also examining more closely the chemical functionality of the systems and how this depends on the ligand structure and supramolecular interactions. This interdisciplinary research will lead to a better understanding of the properties of organic-based nanostructures and nanotechnologies, especially with regard to electronic characterization, thermodynamics of assembly, surface interactions, and device development in controlled environments.

Selected Publications:

S. L. Tait, G. Costantini, Y. Wang, N. Lin, A. Baraldi, F. Esch, L. Petaccia, S. Lizzit, K. Kern, "Metal-Organic Coordination Interactions in Fe-Terephthalic Acid Networks on Cu(100)," Journal of the American Chemical Society , 130 , 2108 (2008).

A. Langner, S. L. Tait, N. Lin, C. Rajadurai, M. Ruben, and K. Kern,
"Self-Recognition and Self-Selection in Multicomponent Supramolecular Coordination Networks on Surfaces," Proc. of the National Acad. of Sciences USA , 104 , 17927 (2007).

S. L. Tait, Z. Dohnálek, C. T. Campbell, B. D. Kay,
"n-Alkanes on Pt(111) and C(0001) / Pt(111): Chain-length Scaling of Kinetic Desorption Parameters," Journal of Chemical Physics , 125 , 234308 (2006).

S. L. Tait, Z. Dohnálek, C. T. Campbell, B. D. Kay, "n-Alkanes on MgO(100) II: Chain-length Dependence of Kinetic Desorption Parameters for Small n-Alkanes,"
Journal of Chemical Physics , 122 , 164708 (2005).

S. L. Tait, L. T. Ngo, Q. Yu, S. C. Fain, Jr., C. T. Campbell, "Growth and Sintering of Pd Clusters on a -Al 2 O 3 (0001)," Journal of Chemical Physics 122 , 064712 (2005).