Very weak bonds to artificial atoms formed by quantum corrals.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34010141.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/science.abe2600.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
We explored the bonding properties of the quantum corral (a circle of 48 iron atoms placed on a copper surface) reported by Crommie <i>et al.</i> in 1993, along with variants, as an artificial atom using an atomic force microscope (AFM). The original corral geometry confines 102 electrons to 28 discrete energy states, and we found that these states can form a bond to the front atom of the AFM with an energy of about 5 millielectron volts. The measured forces are about 1/1000 of typical forces in atomically resolved AFM. The confined electrons showed covalent attraction to metal tips and Pauli repulsion to CO-terminated tips. The repulsion at close distance was evident from the response of corral states created by deliberately placing single iron atoms inside the corral. The forces scaled appropriately with a 24-atom corral.