Formation of dispersive hybrid bands at an organic-metal interface

Modification of Ag(111) surface electronic structure via weak molecular adsorption of adenine measured with low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy

Low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy have been used to resolve modifications to the Ag(111) surface electronic structure due to the weak adsorption of the nucleobase adenine. Differential conductance spectroscopy recorded at 15 K reveals an upward energetic shift of the surface state native to Ag(111) from a band edge of -67 meV on the clean surface to +82.5 meV recorded over adenine islands. Differential conductance images show the impact of adenine domains on the density of available states as a function of energy relative to the uncovered Ag terraces as well as free-electron-like scattering in the adenine domains. Dispersion of the parallel wave vector of scattered electrons in the adenine domains is compared with the dispersion for electron scattering in bare silver and the ratio of effective masses for electrons in those bands is 1.1+/-0.2. It is hypothesized that this shift occurs due to a combination of effects brought on by the adsorption of adenine including dielectric screening of the first image potential.

One-dimensional molecular chains with dispersive electronic States

One-dimensional molecular chains comprising self-assembled double-layer sexithiophene (6T) molecules on Ag(111) are studied with low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. Despite the molecular chains being stabilized by van der Waals interactions and isolated from the metal substrate, dispersive electronic states are observed. The measurements of differential conductance and dI/dV maps along the chains reveal the end states forming at the ends of chains. Density functional theory calculations indicate the splitting and hybridization of unoccupied pi molecular orbitals between neighboring layers of 6T molecules resulting in the formation of delocalized one-dimensional electronic states.

Recent ARPES experiments on quasi-1D bulk materials and artificial structures

The spectroscopy of quasi-one-dimensional (1D) systems has been a subject of strong interest since the first experimental observations of unusual line shapes in the early 1990s. Angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) measurements performed with increasing accuracy have greatly broadened our knowledge of the properties of bulk 1D materials and, more recently, of artificial 1D structures. They have yielded a direct view of 1D bands, of open Fermi surfaces, and of characteristic instabilities. They have also provided unique microscopic evidence for the non-conventional, non-Fermi-liquid, behavior predicted by theory, and for strong and singular interactions. Here we briefly review some of the remarkable experimental results obtained in the last decade.

Vibrational Kondo effect in pure organic charge-transfer assemblies

A Kondo resonance has been observed using a scanning tunneling microscope on a single molecular layer of a purely organic charge-transfer salt grown on a metal surface. Analysis of the Kondo anomaly reveals that the electron acceptor of the film possesses a spin-1/2 ground state due to the localization of an unpaired electron in the conjugated lowest unoccupied molecular orbital. Because of the pi character of this molecular state the unpaired electron is strongly coupled to molecular vibrations, leading to the split of the Kondo resonance in vibrational sidebands.