Speaker : Abdelkader KARA, Department of Physics, University of Central Florida, USA

Abstract

Extended materials made of organic molecules fall between 'hard' and 'soft' materials, which bare promising novel and interesting functionalities. Their growth through self-assembly is however poorly understood for the lack of a detailed and accurate account of the different operative forces responsible of the assembly of materials of a large variety of physical properties.

I will present a detailed theoretical study of poly-acenes interacting with metal surfaces. I will discuss the electronic and atomic structure at the molecule-metal interface. The adsorption of benzene on noble and transition metals will be presented. For these studies, I have used density functional theory with and without the inclusion of the non-local effects (van der Waals). I will also presents results for larger acenes on flat and stepped surfaces and extract the size and coordination effects.