Deciphering on-surface reactions via low temperature scanning probe microscopy
PD Dr. Daniel Ebeling
Institute of Applied Physics, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany
Understanding reaction mechanisms of adsorbed organic molecules is key to neat on-surface synthesis of functional nanomaterials. Low temperature atomic force microscopy has become an invaluable tool for studying such on-surface reaction mechanisms as it allows to visualize the chemical structure of individual organic molecules. However, directly accessing the molecule-surface interactions that are responsible for the individual reactions steps is difficult. Here, we measure chemical interactions between CO-terminated tips and coinage metal surface atoms in all spatial directions with picometer resolution. Identifying the small covalent bonding contributions in the background of the dispersion-dominated interaction enables revealing insights into the nature of chemical bond formation with metal surface atoms and a reliable determination of molecular adsorption sites. The latter can serve both as a starting point and as a direct comparison with theoretical studies. [1] Recently, we also developed strategies for imaging adsorption sites via an adaptive feedback [2] and presented a proof of concept for an active MEMS cantilever as an alternative to the conventional qPlus sensors. [3]
[1] J. Tschakert, Q. Zhong, A. Sekels, P. Henkel, J. Jung, K. L. H. Pohl, H. A. Wegner, D. Mollenhauer, A. Schirmeisen, D. Ebeling, Nature Communications 16, 7874 (2025)
[2] D. Martin-Jimenez, Q. Zhong, A. Schirmeisen, D. Ebeling. Nanotechnology 35, 475703 (2024)
[3] M. G. Ruppert, M. Wiche, A. Schirmeisen, D. Ebeling. Nanoscale 17, 10600 (2025)