Imaging Orbitals by Ionization or Electron Attachment: The Role of Dyson Orbitals

Distance and Voltage Dependence of Orbital Density Imaging Using a CO-Functionalized Tip in Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

The appearance of frontier molecular ion resonances measured with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)─often referred to as orbital density images─of single molecules was investigated using a CO-functionalized tip in dependence on bias voltage and tip-sample distance. As model systems, we studied pentacene and naphthalocyanine on bilayer NaCl on Cu(111). Absolute tip-sample distances were determined by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM). STM imaging revealed a transition from predominant p- to s-wave tip contrast upon increasing the tip-sample distance, but the contrast showed only small changes as a function of voltage. The distance-dependent contrast change is explained with the steeper decay of the tunneling matrix element for tunneling between two p-wave centers, compared to tunneling between two s-wave centers. In simulations with a fixed ratio of s- to p-wave tip states, we can reproduce the experimental data including the distance-dependent transition from predominant p- to s-wave tunneling contribution.

Models of necessity

The way chemists represent chemical structures as two-dimensional sketches made up of atoms and bonds, simplifying the complex three-dimensional molecules comprising nuclei and electrons of the quantum mechanical description, is the everyday language of chemistry. This language uses models, particularly of bonding, that are not contained in the quantum mechanical description of chemical systems, but has been used to derive machine-readable formats for storing and manipulating chemical structures in digital computers. This language is fuzzy and varies from chemist to chemist but has been astonishingly successful and perhaps contributes with its fuzziness to the success of chemistry. It is this creative imagination of chemical structures that has been fundamental to the cognition of chemistry and has allowed thought experiments to take place. Within the everyday language, the model nature of these concepts is not always clear to practicing chemists, so that controversial discussions about the merits of alternative models often arise. However, the extensive use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in chemistry, with the aim of being able to make reliable predictions, will require that these models be extended to cover all relevant properties and characteristics of chemical systems. This, in turn, imposes conditions such as completeness, compactness, computational efficiency and non-redundancy on the extensions to the almost universal Lewis and VSEPR bonding models. Thus, AI and ML are likely to be important in rationalizing, extending and standardizing chemical bonding models. This will not affect the everyday language of chemistry but may help to understand the unique basis of chemical language.

Photo-ionization and fragmentation of Sc3N@C80 following excitation above the Sc K-edge

We have investigated the ionization and fragmentation of a metallo-endohedral fullerene, Sc₃N@C₈₀, using ultrashort (10 fs) x-ray pulses. Following selective ionization of a Sc (1s) electron (hν = 4.55 keV), an Auger cascade leads predominantly to either a vibrationally cold multiply charged parent molecule or multifragmentation of the carbon cage following a phase transition. In contrast to previous studies, no intermediate regime of C₂ evaporation from the carbon cage is observed. A time-delayed, hard x-ray pulse (hν = 5.0 keV) was used to attempt to probe the electron transfer dynamics between the encapsulated Sc species and the carbon cage. A small but significant change in the intensity of Sc-containing fragment ions and coincidence counts for a delay of 100 fs compared to 0 fs, as well as an increase in the yield of small carbon fragment ions, may be indicative of incomplete charge transfer from the carbon cage on the sub-100 fs time scale.

The Role of Super-Atom Molecular Orbitals in Doped Fullerenes in a Femtosecond Intense Laser Field

The interaction of gas phase endohedral fullerene Ho₃N@C₈₀ with intense (0.1–5 × 10¹⁴ W/cm²), short (30 fs), 800 nm laser pulses was investigated. The power law dependence of Ho₃N@C₈₀^q+, q = 1–2, was found to be different from that of C₆₀. Time-dependent density functional theory computations revealed different light-induced ionization mechanisms. Unlike in C_60, in doped fullerenes, the breaking of the cage spherical symmetry makes super atomic molecular orbital (SAMO) states optically active. Theoretical calculations suggest that the fast ionization of the SAMO states in Ho₃N@C₈₀ is responsible for the n = 3 power law for singly charged parent molecules at intensities lower than 1.2 × 10¹⁴ W/cm².