Patterning a hydrogen-bonded molecular monolayer with a hand-controlled scanning probe microscope.
One of the paramount goals in nanotechnology is molecular-scale functional design, which includes arranging molecules into complex structures at will. The first steps towards this goal were made through the invention of the scanning probe microscope (SPM), which put single-atom and single-molecule manipulation into practice for the first time. Extending the controlled manipulation to larger molecules is expected to multiply the potential of engineered nanostructures. Here we report an enhancement of the SPM technique that makes the manipulation of large molecular adsorbates much more effective. By using a commercial motion tracking system, we couple the movements of an operator's hand to the sub-angstrom precise positioning of an SPM tip. Literally moving the tip by hand we write a nanoscale structure in a monolayer of large molecules, thereby showing that our method allows for the successful execution of complex manipulation protocols even when the potential energy surface that governs the interaction behaviour of the manipulated nanoscale object(s) is largely unknown.
Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany ; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA)-Fundamentals of Future Information Technology, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
Matthew F B
MF
Green
Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany ; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA)-Fundamentals of Future Information Technology, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
Taner
T
Esat
Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany ; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA)-Fundamentals of Future Information Technology, 52425 Jülich, Germany ; Leiden Institute of Physics, Universiteit Leiden, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands.
Christian
C
Wagner
Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany ; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA)-Fundamentals of Future Information Technology, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
Philipp
P
Leinen
Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany ; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA)-Fundamentals of Future Information Technology, 52425 Jülich, Germany ; Unit Human Factors, Ergonomics, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), 44149 Dortmund, Germany.
Alexander
A
Grötsch
Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany ; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA)-Fundamentals of Future Information Technology, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
F Stefan
FS
Tautz
Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany ; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA)-Fundamentals of Future Information Technology, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
Ruslan
R
Temirov
3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride (PTCDA); atomic force microscopy (AFM); scanning tunneling microscopy (STM); single-molecule manipulation