Adsorbate Azimuthal Orientation from Reflectance Anisotropy Spectroscopy

Abstract

We have determined the azimuthal orientation of an adsorbate on a metal surface from an intramolecular-transition-derived feature in reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy (RAS). Adsorption of 9-anthracene carboxylic acid onto $p(2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1)\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{Cu}\left(110\right)$ led to an ordered structure with a strong (2%), derivativelike feature at 4.5 eV. Fresnel theory predicts the measured intensity, functional behavior, and sense of the RAS signal for the molecule aligned along [110]. IR measurements confirm that the molecular plane is perpendicular to the surface and STM measurements support the azimuthal orientation. We reassign the sense of the clean Cu(110) surface RA spectrum.