Planar bridging an atomically precise surface trench with a single molecular wire on an Au(111) surface

Umamahesh Thupakula (1) , Xavier Bouju (1) , Jesús Castro-Esteban (2) , Erik Dujardin (1, 3) , Diego Peña (2) , Christian Joachim (1, 4)

1 CEMES-GNS - Groupe NanoSciences
2 CIQUS - Centro de Investigación en Química Biolóxica e Materiais Moleculares
3 ICB - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne
4 WPI-MANA - International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics

In a bridge configuration, a single graphene nanoribbon (GNR) is positioned with a picometer precision over a trench in between two monoatomic steps on an Au(111) surface. This GNR molecular wire adopts a deformed conformation towards the down terrace in between the two contact step edges. Using differential conductance dI/dV mapping from a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope, it is demonstrated how the electronic delocalization along GNR is cut at each contact by its down curvature. It points out the need to bring conductive nanocontacts backside of the support for preserving the front side GNR planar conformation.

Keywords: Molecular manipulation; Single molecule contact; dI/dV mapping; LT-UHV STM

Domains: Other [cond-mat.other]; Chemical Physics [physics.chem-ph]

Umamahesh Thupakula, Xavier Bouju, Jesús Castro-Esteban, Erik Dujardin, Diego Peña, et al.. Planar bridging an atomically precise surface trench with a single molecular wire on an Au(111) surface. Chemical Physics Letters, 2022, 806, pp.140029. ⟨10.1016/j.cplett.2022.140029⟩. ⟨hal-03798869v2⟩