Controlled lateral manipulation of single diiodobenzene molecules on the Cu(111) surface with the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope

We report on the controlled lateral manipulations of adsorbed single diiodobenzene molecules on the Cu(111) surface with a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) tip at 20 K. The molecular motions in this experiment are mainly induced by the attractive interaction between the tip and the molecule. Even though the leading manipulation mode is ‘pulling’, a continuous ‘sliding’ mode can also be induced if we use higher tip–molecule interaction forces. During the manipulation process, the molecules can follow the tip with hops of single or double copper-atomic-site distances and in some cases ‘hop-scotch’ type movements can also be observed.