The studies on molecules-on-surface systems are of fundamental importance for organic/molecular electronics and chemical engineering. There are two questions to be answered: a) How to tailor surface-supported molecular nanostructures to realize desired functions? b) How to understand the novel mechanical, electronic, optoelectronic, magnetic and chemical properties of molecular nanostructures? Owing to the high spatial and energy resolution, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) has been widely used as a powerful tool for the study of molecules-on-surface systems at molecular level. Here, the behaviors of molecules on surfaces, including diffusion and rotation of single molecules, pattern formation of molecular aggregates by self-assembly and selforganized growth techniques, and on-surface chemical reactions resulting in the formation of covalently bonded molecular structures, have been investigated by STM.
Dr. Dingyong Zhong got his doctoral degree in physic from Institute for Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2003.Then he moved to Physics Institute in University of Münster as a postdoc researcher, working at Interface Group directed by Prof. Fuchs. From 2005 to 2007, he joined Institute for Nanotechnology in Karlsruhe Institute of Technology as a “Guest Scientist”. After that, he returned to Münster as a senior researcher, in charge of the UHV-STM lab at Interface Group. Zhong’s doctoral work was on synthesis and properties of nitrogen doped carbon nanotubes, for which he as a coworker obtained the “Beijing Science and Technology Award (First Class)” in 2009. His present research interest is focused on molecules-on-surfaces systems investigated by STM.