Inducing desorption of organic molecules with a scanning tunneling microscope: theory and experiments

The STM-induced desorption of benzene from Si(100) was experimentally and theoretically studied. A striking threshold in the bias dependence and relatively high yields under mild conditions was observed. A theoretical model rationalized the observations in terms of transient ionization of a π state of the molecule and generaized the findings to predict the behavior of different classes of organic adsorbates under similar conditions.