VIBRATIONAL SPECTROSCOPY OF CO/Cu(211) WITH A CO TERMINATED TIP

Abstract

Vibrational excitations of an isolated CO molecule adsorbed on a Cu(211) surface have been, for the first time, observed with a CO terminated scanning tunneling microscope tip. Both the frustrated translational and rotational modes were observed, and in agreement with the case of a metallic tip. The presence of a CO molecule on the tip, transferred by controlled vertical manipulation, strongly influences the frustrated translational mode of the CO molecule, while it does not affect the frustrated rotational mode. The present work demonstrates that scanning tunneling vibrational spectroscopy is also possible with a molecule at the end of the tip, opening new interesting fields of research and putting some more light on the still open question of inelastic tunneling and its selection rules.