Dresden 2017 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 89: Oxide and Insulator Surfaces: Adsorption III

O 89.2: Talk

Thursday, March 23, 2017, 10:45–11:00, TRE Phy

Consecutive Charging of a Molecule-on-Insulator Ensemble Using Single Electron Tunnelling Methods — •Philipp Rahe¹, Ryan P. Steele², and Clayton C. Williams³ — ¹Fachbereich Physik, Universität Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany — ²Department of Chemistry, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA — ³Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA

Redox-active molecules are attractive materials for memory elements in future electronic devices [1]. Early success [2] in fabricating molecular memory cells notwithstanding, combining and interconnecting the functionality of single molecules into devices while electrically insulating them from the environment still remains a challenge [3].

Here, we follow the bottom-up strategy to fabricate a ferrocene-on-insulator system where the molecules self-assemble into islands stable at room-temperature. The charge state of this ferrocene-on-calcite(1014) system can locally be modified at room temperature [4], where single electron tunnelling methods reveal the charging step. Kelvin probe force microscopy confirms a trapping of the charge within the island structure, and we introduce a model to explain the KPFM contrast [5]. Interestingly, our data gives evidence for charge stability even for multiple charges.

[1] J.S. Lindsey and D.F. Bocian, Acc. Chem. Res. 44, 638 (2011); [2] Z. Liu et al., Science 302, 1543 (2003); [3] J.R. Heath, Annu. Rev. Mater. Res. 39, 1 (2009); [4] P. Rahe et al., Nano Letters 16, 911 (2016); [5] J.L. Neff and P. Rahe, Phys. Rev. B 91, 085424 (2015).