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Updated: Aug 14, 2025

Light-driven Molecular Motors on Surfaces for Single Molecular Imaging
Published on: March 13, 2019
A Nanocar and Rotor in One Molecule
Kwan Ho Au-Yeung1, Suchetana Sarkar1, Tim Kühne1
1Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden, TU Dresden, 01062Dresden, Germany.
Abstract:
Depending on its adsorption conformation on the Au(111) surface, a zwitterionic single-molecule machine works in two different ways under bias voltage pulses. It is a unidirectional rotor while anchored on the surface. It is a fast-drivable molecule vehicle (nanocar) while physisorbed. By tuning the surface coverage, the conformation of the molecule can be selected to be either rotor or nanocar. The inelastic tunneling excitation producing the movement is investigated in the same experimental conditions for both the unidirectional rotation of the rotor and the directed movement of the nanocar.
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