Towards dielectric relaxation at a single molecule scale

Dielectric relaxation lies at the heart of well-established techniques of dielectric spectroscopy essential to diverse fields of research and technology. We report an experimental route for increasing the sensitivity of dielectric spectroscopy ultimately towards the scale of a single molecule. We us...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2022-02, Vol.12 (1), p.2865-7, Article 2865
Main Authors: Stetsovych, Vitalii, Feigl, Simon, Vranik, Radovan, Wit, Bareld, Rauls, Eva, Nejedlý, Jindřich, Šámal, Michal, Starý, Ivo, Müllegger, Stefan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Scanning tunneling microscopy
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Spectroscopy
Spectrum analysis
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Summary:Dielectric relaxation lies at the heart of well-established techniques of dielectric spectroscopy essential to diverse fields of research and technology. We report an experimental route for increasing the sensitivity of dielectric spectroscopy ultimately towards the scale of a single molecule. We use the method of radio frequency scanning tunneling microscopy to excite a single molecule junction based on a polar substituted helicene molecule by an electric field oscillating at 2–5 GHz. We detect the dielectric relaxation of the single molecule junction indirectly via its effect of power dissipation, which causes lateral displacement. From our data we determine a corresponding relaxation time of about 300 ps—consistent with literature values of similar helicene derivatives obtained by conventional methods of dielectric spectroscopy.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-06684-9