Electronic resonance and symmetry in single-molecule inelastic electron tunneling.

Inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy and microscopy with a scanning tunneling microscope revealed two vibrational modes showing a decrease in conductance at +/-82.0 and +/-38.3 mV sample bias for single oxygen molecules chemisorbed on the fourfold hollow sites of Ag(110) surface at 13 K. The spatial distribution of the vibrational intensities exhibited pi(g)-orbital (perpendicular to surface) symmetry of O2 with the molecular axis along the [001] direction. These results are attributed to resonant inelastic electron tunneling.