title: Positioning and switching phthalocyanine molecules on a Cu(100) surface at room temperature.
abstract: Reversible molecular switches with molecular orientation as the information carrier have been achieved on individual phthalocyanine (H2Pc) molecules adsorbed on a Cu(100) surface at room temperature. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) imaging directly demonstrates that H2Pc molecules can be controlled to move along the [011] or [011̅] surface direction of the Cu(100) surface, and the orientation of H2Pc molecules can also be switched between two angles of ±28° with respect to the [011] surface direction by a lateral manipulation. Owing to the highly efficient control over the adsorption site and orientation of H2Pc adsorbed on the Cu(100) surface by lateral manipulation, a pyramidal array formed by 10 H2Pc molecules has been constructed on the Cu surface as a prototype of binary memory, and every molecule within such a molecular array can be individually and reversibly controlled by a STM tip.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and ‡Nanoscale Science and Technology Laboratory, Institute for Advanced Study, Nanchang University , Nanchang 330031, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiaoqing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Feifei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: Xuelei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.forename: Yingxiang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Zhongping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Sanqiu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: manipulation; molecular orientation; molecular switches; scanning probe microscopy