Single-molecule light emission at room temperature on a wide-band-gap semiconductor

H. Yang, A. J. Mayne, G. Comtet, G. Dujardin, Y. Kuk, S. Nagarajan, and A. Gourdon
Phys. Rev. B 90, 125427 – Published 17 September 2014

Abstract

Room-temperature light emission from single chemisorbed perylene based molecules adsorbed on silicon carbide (SiC) is probed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). A new approach to STM-induced luminescence of a single molecule is explored using a wide-band-gap semiconductor to decouple electronically the molecule from the surface. After molecular adsorption, the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital and the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) both lie within the bulk band gap and below the Fermi level of the substrate. The maximum photon energy of the light emission from the molecule shows a fixed shift of 1.5 eV relative to the maximum energy of the tunnel electrons. This is consistent with the photons being generated by inelastic electron tunneling between the HOMO and the unoccupied electronic states of the STM tip.

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  • Received 24 March 2014
  • Revised 29 August 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.90.125427

©2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

H. Yang1,2,3, A. J. Mayne1,*, G. Comtet1, G. Dujardin1, Y. Kuk4, S. Nagarajan5, and A. Gourdon5

  • 1Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay, Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (Unité Mixte de Recherche 8214), Bât. 210, Univ Paris Sud, 91405 Orsay, France
  • 2IBS Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics (CINAP), Institute for Basic Science, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, South Korea
  • 3Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, South Korea
  • 4Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, South Korea
  • 5Centre d'Élaboration de Matériaux et d'Études Structurales - Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, 29, rue J. Marvig, B.P. 94347, 31055 Toulouse, France

  • *andrew.mayne@u-psud.fr

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Vol. 90, Iss. 12 — 15 September 2014

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