2020/05/18 by Frank Eisenhut, Jörg Meyer, Eisenhut, Frank +10
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Surface Chemistry and Catalysis
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2005.08799
openalex publication_date 2020/05/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A key step towards building single molecule machines is to control the\nrotation of molecules and nanostructures step by step on a surface. Here, we\nused the tunneling electrons coming from the tip of a scanning tunneling\nmicroscope to achieve the controlled directed rotation of complex o-MeO-DMBI\nmolecules. We studied the adsorption of single o-MeO-DMBI molecules on Au(111)\nby scanning tunneling microscopy at low temperature. The enantiomeric form of\nthe molecule on the surface can be determined by imaging the molecule by STM at\nhigh bias voltage. We observed by lateral manipulation experiments that the\nmolecules chemisorb on the surface and are anchored on Au(111) with an\noxygen-gold bond via their methoxy-group. Driven by inelastic tunneling\nelectrons, o-MeO-DMBI molecules can controllably rotate, stepwise and\nunidirectional, either clockwise or counterclockwise depending on their\nenantiomeric form.\n