Structural isomerization of individual molecules using a scanning tunneling microscope probe

It is usually quite challenging to control the chirality of individual molecular units and synthesize extremely reactive diradicals in organic chemistry, preventing detailed investigation of the electronic and magnetic properties of diradicals. These issues had inspired the development of chemical reaction techniques to control structures of individual molecules on surface.

This research team recently developed a technique, which allows them to modify the chirality of specific individual molecular units in a three-dimensional nanostructure in a controlled manner. This was achieved by exciting a target molecular unit with tunneling current from a scanning tunneling microscope probe at low temperature under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. By precisely controlling current injection parameters (e.g., the molecular site, at which the tunneling current is injected at a given applied voltage), the team was able to rearrange molecular units into three different configurations: two different stereoisomers and a diradical. Finally, the team demonstrated the controllability and reproducibility of the structural isomerization by encoding ASCII characters (reading "NanoProbe Grp. NIMS©") using binary and ternary values in a series of one-dimensional molecular arrays with each array representing a single character.

In future research, the team plans to fabricate novel carbon nanostructures composed of designer molecular units, whose configurations are controlled via the structural isomerization technique developed in this project. In addition, the team will explore the possibility of creating quantum materials, in which radical molecular units lead magnetic exchange couplings between the units as designed -- a quantum mechanical effect.