Rotational and vibrational excitations of a hydrogen molecule trapped within a nanocavity of tunable dimension

Phys Rev Lett. 2013 Oct 4;111(14):146102. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.146102. Epub 2013 Oct 2.

Abstract

The rotational and vibrational transitions of a hydrogen molecule weakly adsorbed on the Au(110) surface at 10 K were detected by inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy with a scanning tunneling microscope. The energies of the j=0 to j=2 rotational transition for para-H(2) and HD indicate that the molecule behaves as a three-dimensional rigid rotor trapped within the tunnel junction. An increase in the bond length of H(2) was precisely measured from the downshift in the rotational energy as the tip-substrate distance decreases.