Physical Review Letters 2007-03-16

Electron induced ortho-meta isomerization of single molecules.

V Simic-Milosevic, M Mehlhorn, K-H Rieder, J Meyer, K Morgenstern

Index: Phys. Rev. Lett. 98(11) , 116102, (2007)

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Abstract

A scanning tunneling microscope operating at 5 K is used to induce the isomerization of single chloronitrobenzene molecules on Cu(111) and verify the reaction. The threshold voltage of (227+/-7) mV for this reaction is explained based on electron-induced vibrational heating. We propose that the isomerization is initiated by simultaneous excitation of two vibrational molecular modes via inelastically tunneling electrons. This excitation results in a shift of the distribution probability of chlorine and hydrogen positions, which facilitates their mutual exchange.