Enhancement of Inelastic Electron Tunneling Conductance Caused by Electronic Decoupling in Iron Phthalocyanine Bilayer on Ag(111)

Abstract

The effect of electronic decoupling on the inelastic electron tunneling process of iron phthalocyanine (FePc) molecules on Ag(111) was investigated using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). A drastic difference in the inelastic electron tunneling to individual FePc molecules was found for the first and the second layer molecules grown on Ag(111). The spectrum of the first layer molecule is essentially structureless, whereas the second layer molecules provide giant conductance changes reaching several tens % due to the vibrational excitations. This is the first clear example to demonstrate, by using inelastic tunneling spectroscopy with STM, the enhancement of vibrational inelastic tunneling driven through the electronic decoupling of the molecules from the substrate.