Letter abstract
Nature Materials 4, 892 - 895 (2005)
doi:10.1038/nmat1529
Subject Categories: Surface and thin films | Molecular electronics
Trapping and moving metal atoms with a six-leg molecule
Leo Gross1, Karl-Heinz Rieder1, Francesca Moresco1, Sladjana M. Stojkovic2, André Gourdon2 and Christian Joachim2
Putting to work a molecule able to collect and carry adatoms in a controlled way on a surface is a solution for fabricating atomic structures atom by atom. Investigations have shown that the interaction of an organic molecule with the surface of a metal can induce surface reconstruction down to the atomic scale1, 2, 3, 4, 5. In this way, well-defined nanostructures such as chains of adatoms2, atomic trenches3, 4 and metal–ligand compounds5 have been formed. Moreover, the progress in manipulation techniques6, 7, 8, 9, 10 induced by a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) has opened up the possibility of studying artificially built molecular-metal atomic scale structures11, 12, and allowed the atom-by-atom doping of a single C60 molecule by picking up K atoms13. The present work goes a step further and combines STM manipulation techniques with the ability of a molecule to assemble an atomic nanostructure. We present a well-designed six-leg single hexa-t-butyl-hexaphenylbenzene (HB-HPB) molecule14, which collects and carries up to six copper adatoms on a Cu(111) surface when manipulated with a STM tip. The 'HB-HPB-Cu atoms' complex can be further manipulated, bringing its Cu freight to a predetermined position on the surface where the metal atoms can finally be released.
- Institut für Experimentalphysik, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 14, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
- CEMES-CNRS, 29 rue J. Marvig, PO Box 4347, F-31055 Toulouse Cedex, France
Correspondence to: Francesca Moresco1 e-mail: francesca.moresco@physik.fu-berlin.de
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