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Bond Breaking Coupled with Translation in Rolling of Covalently Bound Molecules

2005; American Physical Society; Volume: 94; Issue: 14 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physrevlett.94.146104

1092-0145

D. Keeling, M. J. Humphry, R. H. J. Fawcett, Peter H. Beton, Chris Hobbs, Lev Kantorovich,

Fullerene Chemistry and Applications

The response of a C60 molecule to manipulation across a surface displays a long range periodicity which corresponds to a rolling motion. A period of three or four lattice constants is observed and is accompanied by complex subharmonic structure due to molecular hops through a regular, repeating sequence of adsorption states. Combining experimental data and ab initio calculations, we show that this response corresponds to a rolling motion in which two of the four Si-C60 covalent bonds act as a pivot over which the molecule rotates while moving through one lattice constant and identify a sequence of C60 bonding configurations that accounts for the periodic structure.