Formation of a regular fullerene nanochain lattice

[C.sub.60] nanostructures with long-range order and uniform size are prepared using a vicinal Au(11 12 12) surface, naturally patterned into a rectangular superlattice as a template. A two-dimensional long-range ordered superlattice of molecular nanochains is achieved at room temperature and at a coverage of 0.1 monolayer, which perfectly replicates the periodicity of the template surface.