An ability to first visualize and then shape the nanoworld is of great scientific and technological interest. In this talk, we present two unusual approaches that both allow the formation of structures with atomic precision. In the first approach, we are capitalizing on the fact that with the continued development of scanning probe microscopy techniques, atomic structure imaging and manipulation of single molecules has become possible, providing unprecedented insight into chemistry at the single-molecule level. To illustrate this approach, we start by showing how tip-sample interaction forces and potentials can be measured locally with pN and meV accuracy and pm precision in all three dimensions using phthalocyanine molecules that catalyze the formation of methanol from CO2 and hydrogen as an example. Afterwards, we demonstrate how the probe tip can be used for controlled manipulation with benzene on a Cu (100) surface as a model system, which can ultimately yield information on energy barriers in chemical reactions.
Udo D. Schwarz graduated in 1989 from the University of Basel, Switzerland, receiving his Ph.D. in physics from the same institution in 1993. After eight years at the University of Hamburg, Germany, Prof. Schwarz moved in 2001 to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Since 2002, he works at Yale’s Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Department, where he serves as department chair since 2012. His research interests concern the local measurement of atomic-scale interactions and properties using scanning probe microscopy to study problems in surface physics, catalysis, and friction. He also uses nanoindentation and other mechanical and structural testing methods for the characterization of novel materials, in particular metallic alloys.