TY  - JOUR
AU  - Martinez-Castro, Jose
AU  - Bolat, Rustem
AU  - Fan, Qitang
AU  - Werner, Simon
AU  - Arefi, Hadi H.
AU  - Esat, Taner
AU  - Sundermeyer, Jörg
AU  - Wagner, Christian
AU  - Michael Gottfried, J.
AU  - Temirov, Ruslan
AU  - Ternes, Markus
AU  - Stefan Tautz, F.
TI  - Disentangling the electronic structure of an adsorbed graphene nanoring by scanning tunneling microscopy
JO  - Communications materials
VL  - 3
IS  - 1
SN  - 2662-4443
CY  - London
PB  - Springer Nature
M1  - FZJ-2022-04216
SP  - 57
PY  - 2022
AB  - Graphene nanorings are promising model structures to realize persistent ring currents and Aharonov–Bohm effect at the single molecular level. To investigate such intriguing effects, precise molecular characterization is crucial. Here, we combine low-temperature scanning tunneling imaging and spectroscopy with CO functionalized tips and algorithmic data analysis to investigate the electronic structure of the molecular cycloarene C108 (graphene nanoring) adsorbed on a Au(111) surface. We demonstrate that CO functionalized tips enhance the visibility of molecular resonances, both in differential conductance spectra and in real-space topographic images. Comparing our experimental data with ab-initio density functional theory reveals a remarkably precise agreement of the molecular orbitals and enables us to disentangle close-lying molecular states only separated by 50 meV at an energy of 2 eV below the Fermi level. We propose this combination of techniques as a promising new route for a precise electronic characterization of complex molecules and other physical properties which have electronic resonances in the tip-sample junction.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000844772400001
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s43246-022-00275-x
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/910866
ER  -