04/2022 "A deep look into the molecule"

Scientists from the LOEWE research-initiative PriOSS (Principles of On-Surface Synthesis) and the University of Newcastle (UON) in Australia have jointly developed a new measurement method to visualize the chemical structure of single molecules. A low-temperature atomic force microscope (AFM) was used for the measurements, which scans the sample with an extremely sharp tip that is functionalized with a single CO molecule. The excitation of a torsional eigenmode of the tuning fork sensor (twisting along the longitudinal axis) results in a nearly lateral vibration of the CO tip with an amplitude of only a few picometers, which perfectly suited for performing lateral force microscopy (LFM) with single bond resolution.

Original Publication

Daniel Martin-Jimenez, Michael G. Ruppert, Alexander Ihle, Sebastian Ahles, Hermann A. Wegner, André Schirmeisen and Daniel Ebeling. "Chemical bond imaging using torsional and flexural higher eigenmodes of qPlus sensors." Nanoscale 14, 5329, 2022 (Cover Article). https://doi.org/10.1039/D2NR01062C 

JLU Press release link to article