Philip Willke, Yujeong Bae, et al.
Science
Understanding the principles of molecular recognition is a difficult task and calls for investigation of appropriate model systems. Using the manipulation capabilities of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) we analyzed the chiral recognition in self-assembled dimers of helical hydrocarbons at the single molecule level. After manual separation of the two molecules of a dimer with a molecule-terminated STM tip on a Cu(111) surface, their handedness was subsequently determined with a metal atom-terminated tip. We find that these molecules strongly prefer to form heterochiral pairs. Our study shows that single molecule manipulation is a valuable tool to understand intermolecular recognition at surfaces.
Philip Willke, Yujeong Bae, et al.
Science
Philip Willke, Kai Yang, et al.
Nature Physics
Philip Willke, Aparajita Singha, et al.
Nano Letters
Susanne Baumann, Ileana G. Rau, et al.
ACS Nano