Manipulating and Probing the Distribution of Excess Electrons in an Electrically Isolated Self-Assembled Molecular Structure

Abstract

Exploiting 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.

Tunable Single-Atomic Charge/Spin States of Intercalant Co Ions in a Transition Metal Dichalcogenide

“…The metastable charged state can be controlled using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) probe, which resulted in manipulation of charge and spin states of Co ion. Although the process is similar to what have been reported in single electron charging of deposited atom on thin insulating lm 4 , the absence of insulating layer , which is the essential part of various charge manipulation experiments [4][5][6][7] , contrasts the fundamental difference of the process. The existence of van der Waals gap in the bulk structure seems involved in reducing coupling of the intercalated ion orbitals from the base matrix states even without any further insulating layer in between.…”

“…Typically, changing an ionic state in a solid involves a dramatic local change of energy as well as orbital/spin magnetic moment from its ground state. However, the atomic investigation of the charging process of an intercalant ion in 2D material has never been explored while such subject has been studied in arti cially deposited atoms on thin insulating 2D layers using scanning probe microscopy [4][5][6][7] . Herein, we demonstrate an atomical manipulation of the charge and spin state of Co ions on a metallic NbS 2 , obtained by cleaving of Co-intercalated NbS 2 .…”

Ionic charge distributions in silicon atomic surface wires

“…S3 †). The slanted nature of the Δf (V) charge step is not seen in other reported single electron charging systems 11,57 and is thought to be a result of a currentinduced averaging of the charge state based on competing emptying and filling rates of the DB. 58,59 Constant height Δf maps of the DB in a fixed positive (+), neutral (0), and negative (−) charge state relative to the H-Si surface can be seen in Fig.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Due to their decreased size, the charge distribution of such devices can no longer be treated as an ensemble average, instead requiring highly localized, individual assessment. The atomic force microscope (AFM) has been proven to be a useful tool capable of detecting discrete single-electron charge transitions in both molecular [9][10][11][12][13] and atomic structures, [14][15][16] including patternable silicon dangling bonds (DBs) 6,[17][18][19] on a hydrogen-terminated surface. A DB is patterned through atomically precise removal of a surface hydrogen atom through current injection from an atomically sharp tip [20][21][22][23][24][25] leaving a single unsatisfied bond which extends into vacuum.…”

Imaging Charge Localization in a Conjugated Oligophenylene

“…4(e)]. This observation suggests that the change in the contrast of the Δf channel is related to the spatial distribution of the excess charge [37,42]. However, structural distortions are likely to occur due to the delicate interplay between geometry relaxation and electronic structure in oligophenylenes [8,9].…”