Xu Xiaona, Qi Qiang, Hu Qihong, Ma Liang, Emusani Ramya, Zhang Surong, Zhao Xueyan, Tan Min, Adijiang Adila, Zhang Wei, Ma Ziwei, Tian Guangjun, Scheer Elke, Xiang Dong
Center of Single-Molecule Sciences, Institute of Modern Optics, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale Optical Information Science and Technology, <a href="https://ror.org/01y1kjr75">Nankai University</a>, Tianjin 300350, China.
State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology and Key Laboratory for Microstructural Material Physics of Hebei Province, School of Science, <a href="https://ror.org/02txfnf15">Yanshan University</a>, Qinhuangdao, 066004, China.
Phys Rev Lett. 2024 Dec 6;133(23):233001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.233001.
Via conductance measurements of thousands of single-molecule junctions, we report that the π-π coupling between neighboring aromatic molecules can be manipulated by laser illumination. We reveal that this optical manipulation originates from the optical plasmonic gradient force generated inside the nanogaps, in which the gapped antenna electrodes act as optical tweezers pushing the neighboring molecules closer together. These findings offer a nondestructive approach to regulate the interaction of the molecules, deepening the understanding of the mechanism of π-π interaction, and open an avenue to manipulate the relative position of extremely small objects down to the scale of single molecules.
通过对数千个单分子结进行电导测量，我们报告称相邻芳香分子之间的π-π耦合可通过激光照射来操控。我们揭示出这种光学操控源于纳米间隙内产生的光学等离子体梯度力，其中带隙天线电极充当光学镊子，将相邻分子推得更近。这些发现提供了一种无损方法来调节分子间的相互作用，加深了对π-π相互作用机制的理解，并开辟了一条操控极小物体直至单分子尺度相对位置的途径。
