A "horizontal precipitation" method for preparation of uniform Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films has been developed. The technique was successfully employed in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies of dense cobalt behenate monolayers deposited on a graphite substrate. Experimental results were complemented by a theoretical simulation of STM images of long carbon chains using a zero-interaction model. The agreement between the observed and simulated distributions in the STM current indicates that the weak interactions between graphite and the adsorbed molecules may be negligible.

Thin Solid Films (2000), v. 359, pp 98-103