Organic molecules interacting with assembled metal nanostructures

Molecules represent perfectly identical nanometer-scale objects with a specific electronic structure, which – as the central goal of a future molecular-based electronics – may serve as surface-supported functional building blocks with defined sensing, switching or conduction properties. In this context, it is important to study the physical implications of molecule-substrate interactions at the single-molecule level and to explore strategies to create composite structures of higher complexity (and eventually real functionality). Our activities in this field involve single pentacene molecules adsorbed on the 3d metal surface Cu(111). Pentacene (C₂₂H₁₄) is a linear polycyclic hydrocarbon and has gained considerable attention due to its promising bulk properties as an organic semiconductor material. We study the detailed adsorptive configuration of the molecule as well as structural and electronic properties of hybrid structures corresponding to single pentacene molecules attached to monatomic Cu quantum wires by molecule manipulation.

Figure:

Submonolayer coverage of pentacene adsorbed on an extended Cu(111) surface area (A) and single molecule imaged with a bare metallic tip (B) or probed with submolecular resolution (C) after transferring a molecule to the tip prior to imaging. Right-hand side panels show a Cu₁₇ adatom chain and a pentacene molecule before (D) and after (E) attachment by lateral manipulation.

Related publications:

J. Lagoute, K. Kanisawa and S. Fölsch, Manipulation and adsorption-site mapping of single pentacene molecules on Cu(111), Phys. Rev. B 70, 245415-1/245415-6  (2004)

J. Lagoute and S. Fölsch, Interaction of single pentacene molecules with monatomic Cu/Cu(111) quantum wires, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 23, 1726-1731 (2005)