Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Scanning probe microscopy

Seeing the charge within

Nature Nanotechnology volume 7, pages 210–211 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

The distribution of electric charge within a single naphthalocyanine molecule has been revealed by researchers using a combination of three types of microscopy and theoretical modelling.

Atomic force microscopy is a well-established tool that can image surfaces with atomic resolution and, in some cases, even allow individual bonds to be visualized1. In a spectacular experiment, reported in Nature Nanotechnology, researchers at IBM Research-Zurich have now directly imaged the charge distribution within a molecule2 using Kelvin probe force microscopy3. This opens the door to using a combination of atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy to make quantitative measurements of the charge distribution in individual molecules. Such measurements will lead to a deeper understanding of fundamental processes that are relevant to catalysis, organic photovoltaic materials and molecular electronics.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Kelvin probe force microscopy.

References

  1. Gross, L., Mohn, F., Moll, N., Liljeroth, P. & Meyer, G. Science 325, 1110–1114 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Mohn, F., Gross, L., Moll, N. & Meyer, G. Nature Nanotech. 7, 227–231 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Nonnenmacher, M., O'Boyle, M. P. & Wickramasinghe, H. K. Appl. Phys. Lett. 58, 2921–2923 (1991).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Sadewasser, S. & Glatzel, T. (eds) Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy: Measuring and Compensating Electrostatic Forces (Springer, 2012).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  5. Gross, L. et al. Science 324, 1428–1431 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. König, T. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 17544–17545 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Leoni, T. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 216103 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Peter Grutter is in the Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal H3A 2T8, Canada,

    Peter Grutter

Authors
  1. Peter Grutter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter Grutter.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Grutter, P. Seeing the charge within. Nature Nanotech 7, 210–211 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2012.43

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2012.43

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Find nanotechnology articles, nanomaterial data and patents all in one place. Visit Nano by Nature Research