Premium
High‐resolution scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopy of stereochemically resolved dibenzo[a,h]thianthrene molecules
Author(s) -
Pavliček Niko,
HerranzLancho Coral,
Fleury Benoit,
Neu Mathias,
Niedenführ Judith,
Ruben Mario,
Repp Jascha
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.201349229
Subject(s) - thianthrene , molecule , scanning tunneling microscope , density functional theory , planar , molecular physics , chemistry , chemical physics , resolution (logic) , atomic force microscopy , quantum tunnelling , adsorption , crystallography , materials science , nanotechnology , computational chemistry , photochemistry , optoelectronics , computer graphics (images) , organic chemistry , artificial intelligence , computer science
Recently, we reported on the bistable configurational switching of dibenzo[a,h]thianthrene (DBTH) molecules adsorbed on NaCl using combined low‐temperature scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopy (STM/AFM). Here, we discuss the intra‐molecular contrast in AFM images of the molecules as a function of the tip–molecule distance. Our experiments show that ridges in the frequency shift do not necessarily correlate with chemical bonds in this case of a non‐planar molecule. To explain this finding we compare images acquired at different tip–molecule distances to the calculated electron density of the molecules obtained from density functional theory calculations (DFT). In addition, we analyze the probability of finding different configurations after adsorption onto the surface. DBTH molecules in two configurations probed by a CO‐functionalized tip. Insets show AFM (left) and STM (right) images of a U molecule.