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Molecular Foundry

HIGHLIGHTSFrustrated Supercritical Collapsein Tunable Charge Arrays on Graphene
January 19, 2019

(a) Illustration of the synthesis of 1D F4TCNQ molecular arrays on a gated graphene FET device. (b) A close-up STM image of a 1D F4TCNQ molecular array anchored to the edge of a PCDA island. (c) STM image of an 80-nm long atomically-precise F4TCNQ molecular array. (d) Diagram shows the behavior of electrons far from the molecular array (the far-field) where the global supercritical charge of the molecules causes electrons to undergo a collapsing spiral toward the array. In the near-field, however, each individual molecule is subcritical and the electrons eventually scatter without falling to the center. This is how light is trapped by a galactic star cluster in the absence of black holes.

Scientific Achievement

Synthesized 1D arrays of charged molecules on graphene and characterized a new type of supercritical confinement of graphene carriers.

Significance and Impact

The coupling of charged molecular arrays to electrons in graphene exhibits unique behavior that is analogous to how light interacts with galactic star clusters.

Research Details

  • Created charge-tunable, periodic, self-assembled 1D molecular arrays on clean, back-gated graphene FET devices via bottom-up synthesis techniques.
  • Scanning tunneling microscopy allowed the graphene electrons to be directly imaged as they interacted with the charged molecular array.
  • Graphene carriers far from the molecules are attracted by the supercritical molecular charge distribution, but their fall to the center is frustrated by the subcritical potential of individual molecules.
J. Lu, H.-Z. Tsai, A. N. Tatan, S. Wickenburg, A. A. Omrani, D. Wong, A. Riss, E. Piatti, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, A. Zettl, V. M. Pereira, M. F. Crommie. Nature Communications 10, 477 (2019).

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