TY - JOUR
T1 - Controlling Hydrogen-Transfer Rate in Molecules on Graphene by Tunable Molecular Orbital Levels
AU - Harsh, Rishav
AU - Joucken, Frédéric
AU - Chacon, Cyril
AU - Repain, Vincent
AU - Girard, Yann
AU - Bellec, Amandine
AU - Rousset, Sylvie
AU - Sporken, Robert
AU - Smogunov, Alexander
AU - Dappe, Yannick J.
AU - Lagoute, Jérôme
PY - 2019/11/7
Y1 - 2019/11/7
N2 - Molecular switches are building blocks of potential interest to store binary information, especially when they can be organized in periodic lattices. Among the variety of possible systems, switches based on hydrogen transfer are of special importance because they allow the switching operation to occur without severe conformational change that may interfere with neighboring molecular units. We have studied the excitation process of hydrogen transfer inside porphyrin molecules assembled on a graphene surface, using a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope. We show that this hydrogen transfer is induced by an electronic resonant tunneling process through the molecular orbitals. Using nitrogen doping of graphene, we tune the rate of hydrogen transfer by shifting the molecular orbital energies owing to the charge transfer at nitrogen dopant sites in the graphene lattice. The control of the switching process allows the storage of information inside a molecular lattice, which is demonstrated by writing an artificial pattern inside a molecular island.
AB - Molecular switches are building blocks of potential interest to store binary information, especially when they can be organized in periodic lattices. Among the variety of possible systems, switches based on hydrogen transfer are of special importance because they allow the switching operation to occur without severe conformational change that may interfere with neighboring molecular units. We have studied the excitation process of hydrogen transfer inside porphyrin molecules assembled on a graphene surface, using a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope. We show that this hydrogen transfer is induced by an electronic resonant tunneling process through the molecular orbitals. Using nitrogen doping of graphene, we tune the rate of hydrogen transfer by shifting the molecular orbital energies owing to the charge transfer at nitrogen dopant sites in the graphene lattice. The control of the switching process allows the storage of information inside a molecular lattice, which is demonstrated by writing an artificial pattern inside a molecular island.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074423385&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b02902
DO - 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b02902
M3 - Article
C2 - 31638814
AN - SCOPUS:85074423385
VL - 10
SP - 6897
EP - 6903
JO - The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
JF - The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
SN - 0366-7022
IS - 21
ER -