Exploring and manipulating fullerenes at the single molecule level

COLL 506

M. F. Crommie, crommie@berkeley.edu, Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, 366 LeConte Hall #7300, Berkeley, CA 94720
Fullerene molecules provide powerful building blocks for creating nanostructures with unique electronic properties. The flexible nature of these molecules arises from a combination of molecular orbital geometry, Coulomb interactions, and electron-phonon coupling. We have used scanning tunneling microscopy to examine and manipulate these factors in order to explore fullerene molecules in different physical regimes. We find that it is possible to reversibly change the charge and magnetic state of individual C60 molecules through single-atom doping, and we have spatially mapped electron-phonon interaction strengths over the surface of single fullerene molecules. We find that when fullerenes are packed into 2-dimensional assemblies then molecular electron-electron and electron-phonon effects combine to create novel long-range order.