nl9b05063_si_001.pdf (1.5 MB)
Manipulating and Probing the Distribution of Excess Electrons in an Electrically Isolated Self-Assembled Molecular Structure
journal contribution
posted on 2020-02-24, 20:11 authored by Philipp Scheuerer, Laerte L. Patera, Jascha ReppExploiting
single electrical charges and their mutual interactions
for computation has been proposed as a concept for future nanoelectronics.
Controlling and probing charge transfer in electrically isolated atomic-scale
structures are fundamental to push its experimental realization. Here,
we controllably inject individual excess electrons and study their
distribution in a self-assembled structure supported on a nonconductive
substrate. The self-assembly ensures structural order down to the
atomic scale. Depending on the charge state of the molecular assembly,
intermolecular electron hopping and specific electron distributions
have been resolved by atomic force microscopy, clarifying the charge-transfer
pathways in the tunnel-coupled structure. When mutual charge interactions
were exploited, control over specific charge distributions in the
self-assembled structure has been achieved with single-molecule precision,
paving the way toward the design of data processing platforms based
on molecular nanostructures.