https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2007-00157-x
Silver oligomer and single fullerene electronic properties revealed by a scanning tunnelling microscope
Institut für Experimentelle und Angewandte Physik, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, 24098 Kiel, Germany
Corresponding author: a kroeger@physik.uni-kiel.de
Received:
24
January
2007
Revised:
11
April
2007
Published online:
16
May
2007
Clusters on surfaces have been investigated with low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy. Constant current spectra acquired on Ag oligomers and one-dimensional chains on a Ag(111) reveal a single resonance peak whose energy shifts towards the Fermi level with increasing cluster size. Next, controlled and reproducible contact between a STM tip and a C60 molecule adsorbed on Cu(100) is reported. The transition from tunnelling to contact is discussed in terms of local heating of the tip-molecule junction.
PACS: 73.22.-f – Electronic structure of nanoscale materials: clusters, nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanocrystals / 61.48.+c – Fullerenes and fullerene-related materials / 68.37.-d – Microscopy of surfaces, interfaces, and thin films / 68.37.Ef – Scanning tunneling microscopy
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2007