Yanagisawa H, Bohn M, Kitoh-Nishioka H, Goschin F, Kling MF. Light-Induced Subnanometric Modulation of a Single-Molecule Electron Source.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2023;
130:106204. [PMID:
36962055 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.130.106204]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2022] [Revised: 11/21/2022] [Accepted: 01/18/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Single-molecule electron sources of fullerenes driven via constant electric fields, approximately 1 nm in size, produce peculiar emission patterns, such as a cross or a two-leaf pattern. By illuminating the electron sources with femtosecond light pulses, we discovered that largely modulated emission patterns appeared from single molecules. Our simulations revealed that emission patterns, which have been an intractable question for over seven decades, represent single-molecule molecular orbitals. Furthermore, the observed modulations originated from variations of single-molecule molecular orbitals, practically achieving the subnanometric optical modulation of an electron source.
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