Quasi one-dimensional band dispersion and surface metallization in long-range ordered polymeric wires

Guillaume Vasseur (1) , Yannick Fagot-Révurat (1) , Muriel Sicot (1) , Bertrand Kierren (1) , Luc Moreau (1) , Daniel Malterre (1) , Luis Cardenas (2, 3) , Gianluca Galeotti (2) , Josh Lipton-Duffin (2, 4) , Federico Rosei (2, 5) , Marco Di Giovannantonio (6) , Giorgio Contini (6, 7) , Patrick Le Fèvre (8) , François Bertran (8) , Liangbo Liang (9, 10) , Vincent Meunier (9) , Dmitrii F. Perepichka (11)

1 IJL - Institut Jean Lamour
2 EMT-INRS - Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications - INRS
3 XPS - IRCELYON-Etudes & analyse de surfaces, XPS, LEIS
4 QUT - Queensland University of Technology [Brisbane]
5 UESTC - University of Electronic Science and Technology of China [Chengdu]
6 ISM - Instituto di Struttura della Materia
7 Department of Physics [Roma Tor Vergata]
8 SSOLEIL - Synchrotron SOLEIL
9 Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy [Troy]
10 CNMS - Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences [Oak Ridge]
11 McGill University = Université McGill [Montréal, Canada]

On-surface covalent self-assembly of organic molecules is a very promising bottom–up approach for producing atomically controlled nanostructures. Due to their highly tuneable properties, these structures may be used as building blocks in electronic carbon-based molecular devices. Following this idea, here we report on the electronic structure of an ordered array of poly(para-phenylene) nanowires produced by surface-catalysed dehalogenative reaction. By scanning tunnelling spectroscopy we follow the quantization of unoccupied molecular states as a function of oligomer length, with Fermi level crossing observed for long chains. Angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy reveals a quasi-1D valence band as well as a direct gap of 1.15 eV, as the conduction band is partially filled through adsorption on the surface. Tight-binding modelling and ab initio density functional theory calculations lead to a full description of the band structure, including the gap size and charge transfer mechanisms, highlighting a strong substrate–molecule interaction that drives the system into a metallic behaviour.

Mots clés: Physical sciences; Condensed matter; Materials science

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Guillaume Vasseur, Yannick Fagot-Révurat, Muriel Sicot, Bertrand Kierren, Luc Moreau, et al.. Quasi one-dimensional band dispersion and surface metallization in long-range ordered polymeric wires. Nature Communications, 2016, 7, pp.10235. ⟨10.1038/ncomms10235⟩. ⟨hal-01271637⟩