Theory of inelastic tunneling spectroscopy of a single molecule - Competition between elastic and inelastic current

A theory of inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy of a single molecule with scanning tunneling microscope is presented using the Keldysh Green’s function method for an adsorbate-induced resonance coupled to the molecular vibration. It is found that the correction to the tunneling current is expressed in terms of the transmission probability; the correction is negative for the elastic part of the current and positive for the inelastic one. The differential conductance (dI/dV) exhibits an increase or decrease at the threshold corresponding to the opening of inelastic channel depending on the sign of the correction, and the size of this conductance jump is scaled with the vibrational damping due to electron-hole pair excitation. The lineshape of d²I/dV²-spectra calculated using a renormalized adsorbate Green’s function evolves from an antisymmetric dip to a peak through the derivative-like one as the position of the adsorbate resonance recedes from the Fermi level of the substrate.     

Theory of inelastic electric current through single molecules

An electronic structure theory has been developed for an inelastic electric current of electron-intramolecular vibration coupling origin in terms of the Keldysh Green function method and the self-consistent Born approximation. Numerical calculations were made for the benzenedithiol molecule linking the two Au(111) electrodes. The calculations successfully reproduce typical features commonly observed in inelastic tunneling spectroscopy. The vibrational excitation energy due to the inelastic current was estimated. The inelastic electric current is quite important for the structural stability and the switching possibility of the molecular device.     

Local bond breaking via STM-induced excitations: the role of temperature

We discuss the influence of temperature on local bond breaking through multiple vibrational excitations induced by inelastic tunneling in the STM. We focus on hydrogen desorption from the H---Si(111) and H---Si(100) systems, but the results are general. The substrate temperature affects the desorption yield in two important ways: first, lowering the temperature increases the H---Si vibrational energy relaxation time, resulting in a higher effective adsorbate temperature and an increased desorption yield. Second, lowering the substrate temperature decreases the dephasing rate of the H---Si modes (manifested by a decrease of the infrared absorption linewidth), which then reduces the rate of incoherent (Förster) vibrational energy transfer away from the Stark-shifted H---Si mode under the tip. This increases the localization of the vibrational energy and enhances the probability for multiple vibrational excitation and desorption. Finally, we discuss the possible implications of our findings on the mechanism of MOS device degradation by hot electrons.     

Laser-induced vibrational excitation and desorption in the Cs/Cu(1 1 1) and Na/Cu(1 1 1) systems

The Cs/Cu(1 1 1) and Na/Cu(1 1 1) systems exhibit a transient excited electronic state localized on the adsorbate. Photo-excitation of this state triggers a motion of the alkali adsorbate away from the surface, leading to vibrational excitation of the adsorbate and possibly to desorption. A theoretical study of these photo-induced processes in the case of an exciting fs laser pulse is reported, based on a time-dependent approach of the adsorbate motion. The mean energy transfer from the laser photon energy to the adsorbate motion is shown to be weak, about 1% of the photon energy. Correspondingly, the vibrational excitation to high lying levels is very weak as well as the desorption process. The initial electronic state of the photo-induced process belongs to a continuum and vibrational excitation and desorption are found to vary rapidly with the energy of the initial electronic state. Initial vibrational excitation of the alkali adsorbate is also found to efficiently favour the desorption process, leading to a drastic variation of the desorption probability with the vibrational temperature of the adsorbate. The present results for the two systems are discussed and compared, in connection with available experimental data on these systems and on similar ones.     

Quantum theory of electron stimulated desorption

The process of electron stimulated desorption of adsorbates from metal surfaces is investigated within the framework of quantum mechanical scattering theory. The Born-Oppenheimer adiabatic approximation is assumed to be valid for the adsorbate motion. The transition amplitude for desorption via the resonant excitation of excited states of the adsorbate then can be factorized into an electronic excitation amplitude and a Franck-Condon factor. The Franck-Condon factor is more complicated than in molecules. The continuum of substrate excitations coupling to the adsorbate gives rise to an absorptive part of the Born-Oppenheimer potential governing the motion of the adsorbate in the excited state. This absorptive part leads to a considerable reduction of the desorption cross section. Explicit quantum mechanical expressions for the corresponding reduction factor are given.The desorption of neutrals is considered in some detail. It turns out that within the adiabatic approximation this process requires the existence of neutral excited states of the adsorbate. The reneutralization of ionic excited states by electron capture from the substrate back into the ground state of the adsorbate, while possible on purely energetical grounds, occurs with zero probability in the adiabatic approximation and thus cannot be responsible for the large abundance of neutral desorbing particles. Neutral excited states of the adsorbate in principle should show up in inelastic electron scattering. The relation between electron stimulated desorption cross sections and inelastic electron scattering cross sections is discussed briefly.     

Response of acoustic phonons to charge and orbital order in the 50% doped bilayer manganite LaSr2Mn2O7

We report an inelastic neutron scattering study of acoustic phonons in the charge and orbitally ordered bilayer manganite LaSr(2)Mn(2)O(7). For excitation energies less than 15 meV, we observe an abrupt increase (decrease) of the phonon energies (linewidths) of a transverse acoustic phonon branch at q = (h, h, 0), h ≤ 0.3, upon entering the low temperature charge and orbital ordered state (T(COO) = 225 K). This indicates a reduced electron-phonon coupling due to a decrease of electronic states at the Fermi level leading to a partial removal of the Fermi surface below T(COO) and provides direct experimental evidence for a link between electron-phonon coupling and charge order in manganites.     

Vibrational control of molecular electron transfer reactions

ABSTRACT

Vibrational motions promote molecular electron transfer (ET) reactions by bringing electron donor and electron acceptor electronic states to fleeting resonance, and by modulating the donor-to-acceptor electronic coupling. The main experimental signature of molecular motion effects on the ET rate is the temperature dependence of the rate, which gives information about the overall free energy activation barrier for the ET reaction. Another approach to probing the vibrational control of ET reactions is to excite specific electron-transfer-active vibrational motions by external infrared (IR) fields. This type of experimental probe is potentially more specific than thermal excitation and recent experiments have shown that molecular ET rates can be perturbed by mode-specific IR driving. We review the theory and experiments of vibrational control of ET rates, and discuss future challenges that need to be tackled in order to achieve the mode-specific tuning of rates.     

氢原子吸附对金表面金属酞菁分子的吸附位置、自旋和手征性的调控

实现单个功能有机分子构型、电子结构和自旋态的可逆调控, 是未来分子电子学和分子自旋电子学应用的关键. 近年来, 我们利用极低温强磁场超高真空扫描隧道显微镜系统, 结合第一性原理计算, 系统研究了氢原子吸附对金表面吸附的金属酞菁分子的自旋、手性和吸附位置的调控. 通过将金表面吸附的酞菁锰分子暴露于氢气或氢原子环境, 使得分子中心的磁性离子吸附单个氢原子, 从而实现了体系近藤效应由“开”到“关”的转变. 基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理计算表明, 氢原子吸附使得锰离子3d轨道内的电荷重排导致了分子的自旋由3/2降为1; 同时分子与金基底的间距增大, 使得近藤效应消失. 通过施加局域电压脉冲或者给样品加热, 可以实现单个或所有分子脱氢, 从而恢复体系的自旋态和近藤效应. 氢原子吸附还导致分子的优先吸附位置从金表面的面心立方堆垛区域变成了六角密排堆垛区域. 三个氢原子吸附于同一酞菁锰分子上, 可导致分子对称性的降低及分子镜面对称轴与金基底镜面对称轴的偏离, 从而导致手征性的出现. 这种分子吸附结构的手征性, 导致分子轨道也呈现出手征性. 这项工作为金属酞菁未来在分子电子学、自旋电子学、气体传感器等方面的应用提供了新思路.     

Quantum theory of electron stimulated desorption

The process of electron stimulated desorption of adsorbates from metal surfaces is investigated within the framework of quantum mechanical scattering theory. The Born-Oppenheimer adiabatic approximation is assumed to be valid for the adsorbate motion. The transition amplitude for desorption via the resonant excitation of excited states of the adsorbate then can be factorized into an electronic excitation amplitude and a Franck-Condon factor. The Franck-Condon factor is more complicated than in molecules. The continuum of substrate excitations coupling to the adsorbate gives rise to an absorptive part of the Born-Oppenheimer potential governing the motion of the adsorbate in the excited state. This absorptive part leads to a considerable reduction of the desorption cross section. Explicit quantum mechanical expressions for the corresponding reduction factor are given.The desorption of neutrals is considered in some detail. It turns out that within the adiabatic approximation this process requires the existence of neutral excited states of the adsorbate. The reneutralization of ionic excited states by electron capture from the substrate back into the ground state of the adsorbate, while possible on purely energetical grounds, occurs with zero probability in the adiabatic approximation and thus cannot be responsible for the large abundance of neutral desorbing particles. Neutral excited states of the adsorbate in principle should show up in inelastic electron scattering. The relation between electron stimulated desorption cross sections and inelastic electron scattering cross sections is discussed briefly.On leave of absence from (present address) Physikdepartment der TUM, München-Garching and Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Stuttgart     

Vibrational heating in single-molecule switches: an energy-dependent density-of-states approach

In recent experiments, it has been shown that the switching rate of single-molecule switches can show a rather complicated dependence on the applied bias voltage. Here, we discuss a minimal model which describes the switching process in terms of inelastic scattering processes of the tunneling electron by specific molecular vibrations. One important point is the introduction of an energy-dependent electronic density of states around the Fermi energy. The influence of different model parameters on the switching rate is studied and we show that the inclusion of a variable density of states allows us to understand the non-monotonic behavior of the switching rate observed in some experiments.     

Adsorbate motions induced by vibrational mode coupling

Adsorbate motions are discussed with a primary attention focused on the coupling between a vibrational mode excited by ultrafast laser heated hot-electrons or by inelastic tunneling electrons with scanning tunneling microscope and the reaction coordinate (RC) mode. Recent experimental results have demonstrated an efficient reaction pathways involving an indirect excitation of a frustrated translational mode, rather than its direct excitation for adsorbate hopping on surfaces. Elementary processes are briefly described for hopping of CO molecules on a laser heated stepped Pt surface, where excitation of the frustrated rotation mode has been found to plays an indispensable. Calculation of the inelastic tunneling current (ITC) for excitation of the C-O stretch mode of a CO molecule is combined with a theory of anharmonic mode coupling to activate the frustrated translation mode above the barrier. The hopping rate as a function of the bias voltage agrees with the experimental result. An unified theory of single-, and two-electron processes for ITC-induced motions induced by an indirect excitation of the RC-mode via mode coupling is also applied to reproduce a crossover from hopping to desorption of a single NH₃ molecule on Cu(1 0 0) with an increase in the tunneling current.     

Nuclear structure at finite temperature: A review

Information on nuclear structure at finite temperature is obtained from the physics of the level density, of the rotational damping, and of the giant dipole resonance thermally excited on a compound nucleus at very large excitation energy (and angular momentum). The current understanding in terms of mean-field theories and beyond is reviewed. The coupling to doorway states and the coupling to many-particle-many-hole states in the random-matrix-theory limit are discussed. Emph asis will be on the close relation between the single-particle damping and the damping of collective vibrations. The coherence between the particle and the hole strongly suppresses the vibrational damping, in particular, the temperature dependence.     

Theoretical treatment of excited electronic states of adsorbates on metals: Electron attachment to CO2 adsorbed on Pt(1 1 1)

Photochemistry involving adsorbates on metals often proceeds by photoexcitation of the metal followed by transient attachment of photoemitted electrons to the adsorbate. First principles theoretical methods suitable for describing electronic states embedded in a near continuum of metal to metal excitations are described and an application to electron attachment to CO₂ adsorbed on Pt(1 1 1) is reported. Wavefunctions are constructed by ab initio configuration interaction methods which allow a rigorous resolution of states and differentiation between competing pathways of molecular desorption and dissociation. An embedding theory is used to achieve high accuracy in the adsorbate-surface region. The energy required to form the electron attached state is 5.2 eV for excitation to bent CO₂ and 6.8 eV for excitation to linear CO₂, hence both energies are near the work function of the metal (5.7 eV). The process also involves localization of the metal hole and attraction of the charged adsorbate to the metal. Optimum geometries are calculated and pathways that results in desorption, dissociation by bond rupture directly in the excited electronic state, or dissociation after return to the ground state potential energy surface via vibrational processes are explored.     

STM simulation of molecules on ultrathin insulating overlayers using tight-binding: Au-pentacene on NaCl bilayer on Cu

We present fast and efficient tight-binding (TB) methods for simulating scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) imaging of adsorbate molecules on ultrathin insulating films. Due to the electronic decoupling of the molecule from the metal surface caused by the presence of the insulating overlayer, STM can be used to image the frontier molecular orbitals of the adsorbate. These images can be simulated with a very efficient scheme based on hopping integrals which also enables the analysis of phase shifts in the STM current. Au-pentacene complex adsorbed on a NaCl bilayer on Cu substrate provides an intricate model system which has been previously studied both experimentally and theoretically. Our calculations indicate that the complicated shape of the molecular orbitals may cause multivalued constant current surfaces - leading to ambiguity of the STM image. The results obtained using the TB methods are found to be consistent with both DFT calculations and experimental data.     

Theory of light rectification in scanning tunneling microscopy in the presence of an adsorbed molecule

We consider the problem of the rectified current induced by laser radiation in the STM junction when the tip is placed above a small molecule like CO or NO. This is calculated assuming a simple tight-binding model for the tunneling junction including the adsorbate and using nonequilibrium Green's functions techniques. The coupling between tunneling electrons and the molecule vibrational modes is taken into account by a local electron-phonon interaction term. In a second step we estimate the excitation rate of the molecule vibrations for a given laser power. This value is then used to obtain the relative change in the rectified current when the laser is in resonance with a molecule vibration. For a moderate laser power of 2 kW/cm² a relative change of 1 to 3% is predicted.     

T1u×hg Jahn-Teller系统：D3d势阱中的频率分解与能级分裂

在C60分子中，未被填充的最低电子态具有T1u对称性，因此，对中性的C60而言，不论是通过分子内部激发，或是外部掺杂，都易被一个电子占据而形成Jahn-Teller（JT）活跃电子态.此态与五重简并的hg声子态耦合，构成所谓的T1u-hg -JT系统.在这一JT系统中，当只考虑电声的线性耦合时，其绝热势能面是一个槽形.但在实际的系统中，二阶电声耦合是存在的，理论研究表明，原来的势槽将被这二阶非线性耦合弯曲成D3d或D5d对称性的势阱.声子振动态在阱中将显示各向异性效应，使得声子沿不同的方向有不同的振动频率，进而影响势阱中的能级分布、势阱间的重叠积分，以及整个系统的隧道能级分裂等.对D3d势阱中各向异性效应进行了研究，利用幺正平移、?pik Pryce和标度变换等方法计算了系统势阱中的能级，以及阱中的振动频率，研究了势阱中的能级间隔以及微绕修正能量的变化，并由此导出了这些物理量在仅有线性耦合的势槽中变化的情形. 关键词： C60 Jahn-Teller效应 各向异性 电声耦合     

The interplay between the surface band structure and possible surface reconstructions of Mo(112)

The experimental band structure of Mo(112) and the effects by temperature and adsorbate are presented. A surface resonance, identified as crossing the Fermi level at about 1/3 from to of surface Brillouin zone, was observed to be very sensitive to both contamination and temperature. We find evidence of adsorbate and temperature induced reconstruction of the Mo(112) surface. Examination of low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) data provides evidence for an adsorbate induced reconstruction of the Mo(112) surface with periodicities consistent with the Fermi level crossing of the surface resonance. The reconstruction is found to occur at coverages as low as 0.03 Langmuirs of oxygen or carbon. The reconstruction and/or adsorbate affects the density of states and bands near the Fermi level of a ₁ symmetry. Received 3 March 1999 and Received in final form 1 October 1999     

Control of molecular energy redistribution pathways via surface plasmon gating

Strong coupling of molecular electronic states with tunable surface plasmon resonances is used to control electronic energy redistribution pathways in molecules adsorbed on a silver film. Ultrafast excitation of porphyrinic molecular J aggregates into the S2 state is followed by a second pulse of varying incident wave vector to produce a tunable plasmon in the film. When the plasmon overlaps the S1 state, energy flows from S2 to S1 at high efficiency. If the plasmon hybridizes with the S2 state, the excitation remains in the S2 vibrational manifold during quenching to the ground state. These results could have significant impact on the design of active molecular devices.