Fig. 1
a Chemical structure of the [(HtomMe){Cu(OAc)}2]+ complexes. The descriptor for the complexes changes according to the chemical surroundings, for clarification see Additional file 1: Figure S1. b Model of binding modes of the complex molecules to adsorb to DNA and to each other. c UHV-AFM topographic image of the agglomeration of multiple strands (frequency shift setpoint df =− 2.5 Hz, oscillation amplitude A = 14.1 nm, resonance frequency f0 = 259.0 Hz) and the dedicated interpretation d: two double strands (yellow, height 0.6 nm), one singular ds (orange, height 0.4 nm), melting bubble dissociation in two single strands (red, height 0.1 nm)