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Direct observation of molecular orbitals of pentacene physisorbed on Au(111) by scanning tunneling microscope
W-H Soe1, C Manzano, A De Sarkar
1IMRE, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 3 Research Link, 117602, Singapore.
Abstract:
Differential conductance (dI/dV) images taken with a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope enabled the first observation of the electron probability distribution of the molecular orbitals of a pentacene molecule directly adsorbed on a metal surface. The three highest occupied molecular orbitals (HOMO, HOMO-1, and HOMO-2) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital are imaged. Thus dI/dV imaging without any intervening insulating layer permits the visualization of a large variety of molecular orbitals in the electronic cloud of a wide-gap molecule physisorbed on a metal surface.
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