Vibronic states in single molecule electron transport

A scanning tunneling microscope was used to study the electron transport through individual copper phthalocyanine molecules adsorbed on an ultrathin Al2O3 film grown on a NiAl(110) surface. The differential conductance spectra display series of equally spaced features, which are attributed to vibronic states of individual molecules. The coupling of the electron current to the vibronic modes was observed to depend on the structures of the adsorbed molecules. Vibronic features were not observed for molecules adsorbed on the bare NiAl(110) surface due to spectral broadening.