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Light-Induced Subnanometric Modulation of a Single-Molecule Electron Source

Hirofumi Yanagisawa1,2,3,4,*, Markus Bohn3, Hirotaka Kitoh-Nishioka5, Florian Goschin3, and Matthias F. Kling3,4

  • 1JST, PRESTO, 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
  • 2Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo, Chiba 277-8581, Japan
  • 3Physics Department, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, D-85748 Garching, Germany
  • 4Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, D-85748 Garching, Germany
  • 5Department of Energy and Materials, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Kindai University, Osaka 577-8502 Japan

  • *hirofumi.yanagisawa@issp.u-tokyo.ac.jp
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 106204 – Published 8 March, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.106204

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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Molecular-Orbital Electron Sources

Published 8 March, 2023

The molecular orbitals of a single C60 molecule on a tungsten tip can be used to shape the emission pattern of electrons.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 106204– Published 8 March, 2023
  • Received 15 June 2022
  • Revised 21 November 2022
  • Accepted 18 January 2023
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.

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