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Scanning tunneling microscopy is an ideal technique to explore the structural and electronic properties of low-dimensional electron system. In this talk I will focus on the study of physical properties self-organizing metallic nanowires on semiconductor surfaces and transport through single molecules. The metallic nanowires show unique physical properties owing to their one-dimensional nature. Many of these properties are intimately related to electron-electron interactions, which play a much more prominent role in one dimension than in two or three dimensions. I will present our work on Pt, Au and Ir atom chains on Ge(001) surfaces and provide a few examples of their unique properties, such as Peierls instability, quantum confinement, suppression of the density of density states near the Fermi level and nanowire length quantization. If time allows I will also elaborate on the transport through single molecules.

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Harold Zandvliet, University of Twente
Seminar Room of the Institute of Physics 2
Contact: T. Michely