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Imaging the dynamics of individually adsorbed molecules

Nature Materials volume 12, pages 223–227 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Although noise is observed in many experiments, it is rarely used as a source of information. However, valuable information can be extracted from noisy signals. The motion of particles on a surface induced, for example, by thermal activation1,2,3,4 or by the interaction with the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope5,6 may lead to fluctuations or switching of the tunnelling current3,4,5,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21. The analysis of these processes gives insight into dynamics on a single atomic or molecular level. Unfortunately, scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) is not a useful tool to study dynamics in detail, as it is an intrinsically slow technique. Here, we show that this problem can be solved by providing a full real-time characterization of random telegraph noise in the current signal. The hopping rate, the noise amplitude and the relative occupation of the involved states are measured as a function of the tunnelling parameters, providing spatially resolved maps. In contrast to standard STM, our technique gives access to transiently populated states revealing an electron-driven hindered rotation between the equilibrium and two metastable positions of an individually adsorbed molecule. The new approach yields a complete characterization of copper phthalocyanine molecules on Cu(111), ranging from dynamical processes on surfaces to the underlying electronic structure on the single-molecule level.

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Figure 1: Schematic representation of the frustrated rotation of CuPc molecules on Cu(111) and its detection by SNM.
Figure 2: SNM: CuPc on Cu(111).
Figure 3: SNS: CuPc on Cu(111).
Figure 4: Adiabatic PES and spatially resolved map of inelastic excitation.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through the SFB 616 Energy Dissipation at Surfaces is gratefully acknowledged. M.C.C. and A.S. thank the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes for support. D. Utzat is gratefully acknowledged for designing and constructing the electronics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Physics and Center for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen (CeNIDE), University of Duisburg-Essen, Lotharstr. 1, D-47057 Duisburg, Germany

    Johannes Schaffert, Maren C. Cottin, Andreas Sonntag, Hatice Karacuban, Christian A. Bobisch & Rolf Möller

  2. Centre d’Investigació en Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (CSIC-ICN), Campus UAB, E-08193 Bellaterra, Spain

    Nicolás Lorente

  3. Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay, CNRS-Université Paris-Sud, UMR 8214, Bâtiment. 351, Université Paris-Sud, F-91405 ORSAY Cedex, France

    Jean-Pierre Gauyacq

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Contributions

J.S., M.C.C., A.S., H.K. and C.A.B. performed all experimental steps including the assembly of the low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscope, the tip and sample preparation, measurements and data analysis; J.S. and N.L. performed DFT calculations and N.L. and J-P.G. worked on the theory on rotational excitation. R.M. designed the low-temperature STM and the SNM electronics. J.S., M.C.C., C.A.B. and R.M. co-wrote the paper with N.L. and J-P.G. All authors discussed and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rolf Möller.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Schaffert, J., Cottin, M., Sonntag, A. et al. Imaging the dynamics of individually adsorbed molecules. Nature Mater 12, 223–227 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3527

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