Beijing National Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Abstract:
Three different methods are used to manipulate and control
phthalocyanine based single molecular rotors on Au (111)
surface: (1) changing the molecular structure to alter the
rotation potential; (2) using the tunnelling current of the scanning
tunnelling microscope (STM) to change the thermal equilibrium of the
molecular rotor; (3) artificial manipulation of the molecular rotor
to switch the rotation on or off by an STM tip. Furthermore, a
molecular `gear wheel' is successfully achieved with two
neighbouring molecules.