2,5-dichlorothiophenol on Cu„111...: Initial adsorption site and scanning tunnel microscope-based abstraction of hydrogen at high intramolecular selectivity

ed, the excitation may always be transferred to the S–H bond. S–H bond scission is the exclusive result of STM-based excitation. The efficient intramolecular excitation transfer responsible for this phenomenon may be regarded as a manifestation of the appreciable electric conductivity of aromatic thiols. Our observation of efficient 9 © 2003 American Institute of Physics AIP license or copyright, see http://jcp.aip.org/jcp/copyright.jsp 10880 J. Chem. Phys., Vol. 119, No. 20, 22 November 2003 Rao et al. excitation distribution within the molecule may be helpful in the design of future molectronic devices. The chemically induced selectivity of the hydrogen abstraction at relatively low precision of the position of the exciting tip may render STM-based excitation of thiols an important technique for anchoring molecules assembled by local-probe methods using techniques such as initiation of molecular chain reactions, and multiple probe designs.