Nam, Shinjae and Riegel, Elisabeth and Hoermann, Lukas and Hofmann, Oliver T. and Gretz, Oliver and Weymouth, Alfred J. and Giessibl, Franz J. (2024) Exploring in-plane interactions beside an adsorbed molecule with lateral force microscopy. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 121 (2): e231105912. ISSN 0027-8424, 1091-6490
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
Atomic force microscopy with a CO- functionalized tip can be used to directly image the internal structure of a planar molecule and to characterize chemical bonds. However, hydrogen atoms usually cannot be directly observed due to their small size. At the same time, these atoms are highly important, since they can direct on- surface chemical reactions. Measuring in-plane interactions at the sides of PTCDA (3,4,9,10- perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride) molecules with lateral force microscopy allowed us to directly identify hydrogen atoms via their repulsive signature, which we confirmed with a model incor-porating radially symmetric atomic interactions. Additional features were observed in the force data and could not be explained by H- bonding of the CO tip with the PTCDA sides. Instead, they are caused by electrostatic interaction of the large dipole of the metal apex, which we verified with density functional theory. This calculation allowed us to estimate the strength of the dipole at the metal tip apex. To further confirm that this dipole generally affects measurements on weakly polarized systems, we investigated the archetypical surface adsorbate of a single CO molecule. We determined the radially symmetric atomic interaction to be valid over a large solid angle of 5.4 sr, corresponding to 82 degrees. We therefore find that in both the PTCDA and CO systems, the underlying interaction preventing direct observations of H- bonding and causing a collapse of the radially symmetric model is the dipole at the metal apex, which plays a significant role when approaching closer than standard imaging heights.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | atomic force microscopy; lateral force microscopy; density functional theory; in-plane interactions |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 530 Physics |
| Divisions: | Physics > Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics > Chair Professor Giessibl > Group Franz J. Giessibl |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Dec 2025 06:30 |
| Last Modified: | 16 Dec 2025 06:30 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/64106 |
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