Diatomic molecular switches to enable the observation of very-low-energy vibrations.
Using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, we found that the coadsorption of atomic hydrogen to single transition-metal and rare-earth-metal atoms on a Ag(100) surface gives rise to surprising phenomena, a bias dependent switching from a large to a small apparent size of the diatomic molecules and a concomitant appearance of very low-energy vibrational features of 3 to 7 meV in the differential conductance spectra. These phenomena, which have until now escaped observation, may be of general relevance for low-temperature adsorption.
Pivetta
Marina
M
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institut de Physique des Nanostructures, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Ternes
Markus
M
Patthey
François
F
Schneider
Wolf-Dieter
WD