- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Materials

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Mechanical manipulation of graphene nanoribbons on Au(111) using large amplitude scanning force microscopy experiments and calculations

Sebastian Schneider1, Jonathan Eifler2, Olga Artemyeva3, Tillmann Klamroth2, and Regina Hoffmann-Vogel3,*

  • *Contact author: hoffmannvogel@uni-potsdam.de
PDF

Phys. Rev. Materials 10, 043803 – Published 22 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/5t5n-p5pl

Abstract

We investigate the manipulation of weakly bound graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) on the Au(111) surface using large amplitude scanning force microscopy. The GNRs are fabricated in situ via surface-assisted Ullmann coupling. Mobile GNRs are identified in scanning images by increased noise due to their weak binding. Their mobility is reduced when they are part of an extended GNR network. Even during passive imaging, interactions between the tip and the GNR can induce slight movements, allowing us to approximate the corrugation of the surface binding potential. We demonstrate tip-induced rotation and lateral displacement of GNRs perpendicular to their axis, during which the ribbon is partially lifted from the surface. Based on first-principles calculations, we construct a two-dimensional potential energy landscape and perform climbing image nudged elastic band calculations to approximate energy barriers for translation. Both approaches show that the barrier strongly depends on the GNR orientation. In addition, we find that beyond a critical length, GNRs become effectively immobilized due to increased energy barriers and reduced flexibility. The theoretical results align well with the observed outcomes of the manipulation experiments.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (50)

  1. D. M. Eigler and E. K. Schweizer, Positioning single atoms with a scanning tunneling microscope, Nature (London) 344, 524 (1990).
  2. J. A. Stroscio and D. M. Eigler, Atomic and molecular manipulation with the scanning tunneling microscope, Science 254, 1319 (1991).
  3. R. Lüthi, E. Meyer, H. Haefke, L. Howald, W. Gutmannsbauer, and H.-J. Güntherodt, Sled-type motion on the nanometer scale: Determination of dissipation and cohesive energies of C60, Science 266, 1979 (1994).
  4. P. E. Sheehan and C. M. Lieber, Nanotribology and nanofabrication of MoO3 structures by atomic force microscopy, Science 272, 1158 (1996).
  5. N. Oyabu, O. Custance, I. Yi, Y. Sugawara, and S. Morita, Mechanical vertical manipulation of selected single atoms by soft nanoindentation using near contact atomic force microscopy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 176102 (2003).
  6. M. Ternes, C. P. Lutz, C. F. Hirjibehedin, F. J. Giessibl, and A. J. Heinrich, The force needed to move an atom on a surface, Science 319, 1066 (2008).
  7. C. Wagner, N. Fournier, F. S. Tautz, and R. Temirov, Measurement of the binding energies of the organic-metal perylene-teracarboxylic-dianhydride/Au(111) bonds by molecular manipulation using an atomic force microscope, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 076102 (2012).
  8. F. J. Giessibl, Atomic resolution of the silicon (111)-(7×7) surface by atomic force microscopy, Science 267, 68 (1995).
  9. S. Kitamura and M. Iwatsuki, Observation of 7×7 reconstructed structure on the Silicon (111) surface using ultrahigh-vacuum noncontact atomic force microscopy, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 34, L145 (1995).
  10. S. Kawai, A. Benassi, E. Gnecco, H. Söde, R. Pawlak, X. Feng, K. Müllen, D. Passerone, C. A. Pignedoli, P. Ruffieux, R. Fasel, and E. Meyer, Superlubricity of graphene nanoribbons on gold surfaces, Science 351, 957 (2016).
  11. S. Kawai, A. S. Foster, F. F. Canova, H. Onodera, S. Kitamura, and E. Meyer, Atom manipulation on an insulating surface at room temperature, Nat. Commun. 5, 4403 (2014).
  12. Y. Sugimoto, P. Jelinek, P. Pou, M. Abe, S. Morita, R. Perez, and O. Custance, Mechanism for room-temperature single-atom lateral manipulations on semiconductors using dynamic force microscopy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 106104 (2007).
  13. S. Torbrügge, O. Custance, S. Morita, and M. Reichling, Manipulation of individual water molecules on CeO2 (111), J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 24, 084010 (2012).
  14. Y. Sugimoto, M. Abe, S. Hirayama, N. Oyabu, O. Custance, and S. Morita, Atom inlays performed at room temperature using atomic force microscopy, Nat. Mater. 4, 156 (2005).
  15. I. Yi, R. Nishi, M. Abe, Y. Sugimoto, and S. Morita, Lateral manipulation of single defect on insulating surface using noncontact atomic force microscope, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 50, 015201 (2011).
  16. G. Langewisch, J. Falter, A. Schirmeisen, and H. Fuchs, Long jumps of an organic molecule induced by atomic force microscopy manipulation, Adv. Materials Inter. 1, 1300013 (2014).
  17. Z. Chen, Y.-M. Lin, M. J. Rooks, and P. Avouris, Graphene nano-ribbon electronics, Physica E 40, 228 (2007).
  18. M. Y. Han, B. Özyilmaz, Y. Zhang, and P. Kim, Energy band-gap engineering of graphene nanoribbons, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 206805 (2007).
  19. D. Rothhardt, A. Kimouche, T. Klamroth, and R. Hoffmann-Vogel, Local work function on graphene nanoribbons, Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 15, 1125 (2024).
  20. S. Schneider and R. Hoffmann-Vogel, Electrostatic forces above graphene nanoribbons and edges interpreted as partly hydrogen-free, Nanoscale 12, 17895 (2020).
  21. M. Koch, F. Ample, C. Joachim, and L. Grill, Voltage-dependent conductance of a single graphene nanoribbon, Nat. Nanotechnol. 7, 713 (2012).
  22. J. Björk, S. Stafstrom, and F. Hanke, Zipping up: Cooperativity drives the synthesis of graphene nanoribbons, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 133, 14884 (2011).
  23. S. Blankenburg, J. Cai, P. Ruffieux, R. Jaafar, D. Passerone, X. Feng, K. Müllen, R. Fasel, and C. A. Pignedoli, Intraribbon heterojunction formation in ultranarrow graphene nanoribbons, ACS Nano 6, 2020 (2012).
  24. C. Ma, Z. Xiao, H. Zhang, L. Liang, J. Huang, W. Lu, B. G. Sumpter, K. Hong, J. Bernholc, and A.-P. Li, Controllable conversion of quasi-freestanding polymer chains to graphene nanoribbons, Nat. Commun. 8, 14815 (2017).
  25. Z. Xiao, C. Ma, W. Lu, J. Huang, L. Liang, K. Hong, A.-P. Li, B. G. Sumpter, and J. Bernholc, Ab initio investigation of the cyclodehydrogenation process for polyanthrylene transformation to graphene nanoribbons, npj Comput. Mater. 5, 91 (2019).
  26. C. Ma, Z. Xiao, P. V. Bonnesen, L. Liang, A. A. Puretzky, J. Huang, M. Kolmer, B. G. Sumpter, W. Lu, K. Hong, et al., On-surface cyclodehydrogenation reaction pathway determined by selective molecular deuterations, Chem. Sci. 12, 15637 (2021).
  27. L. Gigli, S. Kawai, R. Guerra, N. Manini, R. Pawlak, X. Feng, K. Müllen, P. Ruffieux, R. Fasel, E. Tosatti, et al., Detachment dynamics of graphene nanoribbons on gold, ACS Nano 13, 689 (2019).
  28. R. Li and F. Xu, Competition between sliding and peeling of graphene nanoribbons under horizontal drag, Materials 15, 3284 (2022).
  29. J. Cai, P. Ruffieux, R. Jaafar, M. Bieri, T. Braun, S. Blankenburg, M. Muoth, A. P. Seitsonen, M. Saleh, X. L. Feng, K. Müllen, and R. Fasel, Atomically precise bottom-up fabrication of graphene nanoribbons, Nature (London) 466, 470 (2010).
  30. S. Schneider, K. Bytyqi, S. Kohaut, P. Bügel, B. Weinschenk, M. Marz, A. Kimouche, K. Fink, and R. Hoffmann-Vogel, Molecular self-assembly of DBBA on Au(111) at room temperature, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 24, 28371 (2022).
  31. G. Kresse and J. Furthmüller, Efficiency of ab-initio total energy calculations for metals and semiconductors using a plane-wave basis set, Comput. Mater. Sci. 6, 15 (1996).
  32. G. Kresse and J. Furthmüller, Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set, Phys. Rev. B 54, 11169 (1996).
  33. P. E. Blöchl, Projector augmented-wave method, Phys. Rev. B 50, 17953 (1994).
  34. G. Kresse and D. Joubert, From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method, Phys. Rev. B 59, 1758 (1999).
  35. J. P. Perdew, K. Burke, and M. Ernzerhof, Generalized gradient approximation made simple, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3865 (1996).
  36. S. Grimme, J. Antony, S. Ehrlich, and H. Krieg, A consistent and accurate ab initio parametrization of density functional dispersion correction (DFT-D) for the 94 elements H-Pu, J. Chem. Phys. 132, 154104 (2010).
  37. S. Grimme, S. Ehrlich, and L. Goerigk, Effect of the damping function in dispersion corrected density functional theory, J. Comput. Chem. 32, 1456 (2011).
  38. L. Liang and V. Meunier, Electronic structure of assembled graphene nanoribbons: Substrate and many-body effects, Phys. Rev. B 86, 195404 (2012).
  39. A. Basagni, F. Sedona, C. A. Pignedoli, M. Cattelan, L. Nicolas, M. Casarin, and M. Sambi, Molecules-oligomers-nanowires-graphene nanoribbons: A bottom-up stepwise on-surface covalent synthesis preserving long-range order, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 137, 1802 (2015).
  40. M. Yano, S. Yasuda, K. Fukutani, and H. Asaoka, Long and oriented graphene nanoribbon synthesis from well-ordered 10,10'-dibromo-9,9'-bianthracene monolayer on crystalline au surfaces, RSC Adv. 13, 14089 (2023).
  41. G. Langewisch, J. Falter, H. Fuchs, and A. Schirmeisen, Forces during the controlled displacement of organic molecules, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 036101 (2013).
  42. D. Lock, S. Sakulsermsuk, R. E. Palmer, and P. A. Sloan, Mapping the site-specific potential energy landscape for chemisorbed and physisorbed aromatic molecules on the Si(111)-7×7 surface by time-lapse STM, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 27, 054003 (2015).
  43. B. Such, T. Trevethan, T. Glatzel, S. Kawai, L. Zimmerli, E. Meyer, A. L. Shluger, C. H. M. Amijs, P. de Mendoza, and A. M. Echavarren, Functionalized truxenes: Adsorption and diffusion of single molecules on the KBr(001) surface, ACS Nano 4, 3429 (2010).
  44. J. Gehrig, M. Penedo, M. Parschau, J. Schwenk, M. A. Marioni, E. W. Hudson, and H. J. Hug, Surface single-molecule dynamics controlled by entropy at low temperatures, Nat. Commun. 8, 14404 (2017).
  45. F. Hanke and J. Björk, Structure and local reactivity of the Au(111) surface reconstruction, Phys. Rev. B 87, 235422 (2013).
  46. L. Gigli, N. Manini, A. Benassi, E. Tosatti, A. Vanossi, and R. Guerra, Graphene nanoribbons on gold: Understanding superlubricity and edge effects, 2D Mater. 4, 045003 (2017).
  47. J. Eifler, POSCAR Structures of different orientaton of GNR on Au(111), Zenodo (2025), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17549356.
  48. G. Kresse and J. Hafner, Ab initio molecular dynamics for liquid metals, Phys. Rev. B 47, 558 (1993).
  49. G. Henkelman, B. P. Uberuaga, and H. Jónsson, A climbing image nudged elastic band method for finding saddle points and minimum energy paths, J. Chem. Phys. 113, 9901 (2000).
  50. E. Bitzek, P. Koskinen, F. Gähler, M. Moseler, and P. Gumbsch, Structural relaxation made simple, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 170201 (2006).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Materials 10, 043803– Published 22 April, 2026
  • Received 10 November 2025
  • Accepted 27 March 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

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.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation