Figure 1 Inset.pxp

(A) STM topographic image of FePc molecules on silicene/ZrB2 (17.53 nm x 8.71

nm; Vset = -1 V, Iset = 0.5 nA). The cross-shaped molecules adsorb at the edges of the striped

domains. The linear nature of these domains enables the creation chains of molecules on the

surface. The frontier molecular orbital can also be observed. In the inset, white lines have

been added between the silicene ‘up’ atoms to highlight the lattice and purple lines mark the

binding angle. (B) Same topographic image at positive bias (Vset = +1 V, Iset = 0.5 nA). The

molecules now have a triangular profile, and the domain boundaries, as well as kinks that

appear when a domain boundary shifts to a neighboring row of Si ‘up’ atoms, are more clearly

resolved. (C) dI/dV map of a FePc molecule bound upon a silicene domain boundary taken at

-0.7 V shows that the feature observed is the frontier orbital of the FePc molecule. (D) Lobes

of the dI/dV map plotted over topographic image of the molecule show the lobes align with

the molecule (Vset= -0.7V, Iset=0.5 nA).