WG3: Chemical control using scannng tunnelling microscopy

Abstract

New capabilities of atomic-scale imaging, analysis, and manipulation are revolutionizing scientific approaches in both material and life sciences. In particular the technique of Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM) has deepened our understanding of material surfaces by providing us, for the first time, with atomic resolution spatial images. For many years STMs lacked chemical specificity, requiring complementary spectroscopic tools to identify the chemical species being imaged. However, recently STM-IETS (Inelastic Electron Tunneling Spectroscopy) has been developed to measure the vibrational spectrum of a single molecule allowing STMs to be used as a tool for chemical analysis of single molecules.

Our ability to fashion structures and control chemical processes at the fundamental level using electronic excitations has been made possible by combining STM with an understanding of the dynamics of electron-molecule interactions. Electronic induced cleavage of selected bonds of the adsorbed molecule by using inelastic tunnelling of electrons from the STM tip appears to be the most appropriate method for controlling, with precision, molecular reactions at a single site on a surface.

The aim of this part of the action is to significantly advance our understanding of inelastic tunnelling of electrons from the STM tip for producing different kinds of elementary electron induced molecular reactions (e.g. dissociation, desorption, diffusion, change of conformation). These include the population of negative ion resonances or the electronic transitions between occupied and unoccupied electronic states of the molecules adsorbed on the surface.

Keywords

Electron-induced reactions, molecular films, surfaces, adsorbates, reaction mechanisms

List of WG3 participants

  Name Insitute Country Email
1 Marie-Laure Bocquet Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon France
2 Gérald Dujardin Université de Paris-Sud France
3 Karl-Heinz Ernst Swiss Federal Institute for Materials Research (EMPA) Switzerland
4 Andrew Fisher University College London United Kingdom
5 Armin Gölzhäuser Universität Bielefeld Germany
6 Bianca Hermann Walther-Meissner-Institute Germany
7 Werner Hofer The University of Liverpool United Kingdom
8 Thomas Jung Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) Switzerland
9 Nicolas Lorente Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona Spain
10 Angelos Michaelides London Centre for Nanotechnology United Kingdom
11 Karina Morgenstern Leibniz University of Hannover Germany
12 Sveinn Olafsson University of Iceland Iceland
13 Ahmet Oral Bilkent University Turkey
14 Roberto Otero Martin Universidad Autonoma de Madrid Spain
15 Richard Palmer University of Birmingham United Kingdom
16 José Ignacio Pascual Freie Universität Berlin Germany
17 Mats Persson University of Liverpool Liverpool, United Kingdom
18 Maria Raposo New University of Lisbon Portugal
19 Paulo Ribeiro New University of Lisbon Portugal
20 Peter Saalfrank Universität Potsdam Germany
21 Paul Scheier Leopold-Franzens Universität Innsbruck Austria
22 Geoff Thornton University College London United Kingdom
23 Amadeo Lopez Vazquez De Parga Universidad Autonoma de Madrid Spain
24 Harold Zandvliet Science and technology & MESA+University of Twente Netherlands

 

 

Last updated: 4th December 2007