Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Reecht, Gaël
• Lotze, Christian
• Sysoiev, Dmytro
• Huhn, Thomas
• Franke, Katharina J

Titel

Disentangling electron- and electric-field-induced ring-closing reactions in a diarylethene derivative on Ag(1 1 1)

Ist Teil von

• Journal of physics. Condensed matter, 2017-07, Vol.29 (29), p.294001-294001

Ort / Verlag

England: IOP Publishing

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy we investigate the adsorption properties and ring-closing reaction of a diarylethene derivative (C5F-4Py) on a Ag(1 1 1) surface. We identify an electron-induced reaction mechanism, with a quantum yield varying from 10−14-10−9 per electron upon variation of the bias voltage from 1-2 V. We ascribe the drastic increase in switching efficiency to a resonant enhancement upon tunneling through molecular orbitals. Additionally, we resolve the ring-closing reaction even in the absence of a current passing through the molecule. In this case the electric-field can modify the reaction barrier, leading to a finite switching probability at 4.8 K. A detailed analysis of the switching events shows that a simple plate-capacitor model for the tip-surface junction is insufficient to explain the distance dependence of the switching voltage. Instead, describing the tip as a sphere is in agreement with the findings. We resolve small differences in the adsorption configuration of the closed isomer, when comparing the electron- and field-induced switching product.