Early stages of collapsing pentacene crystal by Au

The characteristic feature of metal contacts with gold on organics is deterioration of the organic crystals during the contact formation. The unveiled key challenge is to probe dynamic details of the microscopic evolution of the organic crystal when the atomic Au is introduced. Here, we report how the collapse of the pentacene crystal is initiated even by a few Au atoms. Our results indicate that the gentle decoupling of intra and intermolecular π -π interactions causes the localization of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital as well as the removal of cohesive forces between molecules, leading to the subsequent crystal collapse.