Joint Physics Dept - MtSE Seminar

February 18th, Monday

Atomic and Molecular Manipulation for Nanoscience and Quantum Information Science

Dr. Yuan Zhang

Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory

(Experimental Condensed Matter/Materials Physics, Host: Tyson)

Time: 11:45 am - 12:45 pm with 11:30 am tea time

Room: ECE 202

The invention of Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) brings a revolutionary impact on the nanoscience and nanotechnology. Operated with the mechanism of quantum tunneling effect, STM allows us to image materials at a high spatial resolution with atomic accuracy, probe the local electronic features, and manipulate matter at atomic/molecular scale.

This talk will cover how we can utilize the atomic and molecular manipulation to investigate and operate various molecular machines, construct molecular networks, engineer 2D materials, and investigate quantum information science in the area of spin interactions within domains in a molecular network as well as building artificial lattice and molecular networks with various topological orders.

Topics will cover: 1) A control over the rotation directions of a standalone molecular motor using inelastic tunneling electrons from the STM tip, and a robust molecular propeller for the unidirectional rotation on metal surfaces. 2) Manipulation of a molecular machine network where synchronized rotation of all molecular motors in the network has been realized by using the electric field from the STM tip. 3) Negative differential resistance in the charge density wave phase of 1T-TaS2 has been induced by creating atomic level defects via STM manipulation. 4) For the future research direction concerning explorations of the molecular machine networks, a proposal for investigating spin interactions within the network will be discussed. I will also demonstrate how to build similar 2D molecular networks and artificial lattice in search for novel quantum phenomena.