TY - JOUR A1 - Saywell, A. A1 - Bakker, A. A1 - Mielke, Johannes A1 - Kumagai, T. A1 - Wolf, M. A1 - García-López, V. A1 - Chiang, P.-T. A1 - Tour, J. M. A1 - Grill, L. T1 - Light-Induced Translation of Motorized Molecules on a Surface N2 - Molecular machines are a key component in the vision of molecular nanotechnology and have the potential to transport molecular species and cargo on surfaces. The motion of such machines should be triggered remotely, ultimately allowing a large number of molecules to be propelled by a single source, with light being an attractive stimulus. Here, we report upon the photoinduced translation of molecular machines across a surface by characterizing single molecules before and after illumination. Illumination of molecules containing a motor unit results in an enhancement in the diffusion of the molecules. The effect vanishes if an incompatible photon energy is used or if the motor unit is removed from the molecule, revealing that the enhanced motion is due to the presence of the wavelength-sensitive motor in each molecule. KW - Diffusion KW - Molecular devices KW - Molecular motor KW - Scanning probe microscopy KW - Photoexcitation KW - Photochemistry KW - Molecular machines PY - 2016 UR - http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsnano.6b05650 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.6b05650 VL - 10 IS - 12 SP - 10945 EP - 10952 PB - ACS Publications AN - OPUS4-39095 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Böckmann, H. A1 - Liu, S. A1 - Mielke, Johannes A1 - Gawinkowski, S. A1 - Walluk, J. A1 - Grill, L. A1 - Wolf, M. A1 - Kumagai, T. T1 - Direct observation of photoinduced tautomerization in single molecules at a metal surface N2 - Molecular switches are of fundamental importance in nature, and light is an important stimulus to selectively drive the switching process. However, the local dynamics of a conformational change in these molecules remain far from being completely understood at the single-molecule level. Here, we report the direct observation of photoinduced tautomerization in single porphycene molecules on a Cu(111) surface by using a combination of low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and laser excitation in the near-infrared to ultraviolet regime. It is found that the thermodynamically stable trans configuration of porphycene can be converted to the metastable cis configuration in a unidirectional fashion by photoirradiation. The wavelength dependence of the tautomerization cross section exhibits a steep increase around 2 eV and demonstrates that excitation of the Cu d-band electrons and the resulting hot carriers play a dominant role in the photochemical process. Additionally, a pronounced isotope effect in the cross section (∼100) is observed when the transferred hydrogen atoms are substituted with deuterium, indicating a significant contribution of zero-point energy in the reaction. Combined with the study of inelastic tunneling electron-induced tautomerization with the STM, we propose that tautomerization occurs via excitation of molecular vibrations after photoexcitation. Interestingly, the observed cross section of ∼10–19 cm2 in the visible–ultraviolet region is much higher than that of previously studied molecular switches on a metal surface, for example, azobenzene derivatives (10–23–10–22 cm2). Furthermore, we examined a local environmental impact on the photoinduced tautomerization by varying molecular density on the surface and find substantial changes in the cross section and quenching of the process due to the intermolecular interaction at high density. KW - STM KW - Pophycene PY - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b04092 SN - 1530-6984 SN - 1530-6992 VL - 16 IS - 2 SP - 1034 EP - 1041 PB - ACS AN - OPUS4-35803 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -