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Molecular motor crossing the frontier of classical to quantum tunneling motion.

ABSTRACT: The reliability by which molecular motor proteins convert undirected energy input into directed motion or transport has inspired the design of innumerable artificial molecular motors. We have realized and investigated an artificial molecular motor applying scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), which consists of a single acetylene (C2H2) rotor anchored to a chiral atomic cluster provided by a PdGa(111) surface that acts as a stator. By breaking spatial inversion symmetry, the stator defines the unique sense of rotation. While thermally activated motion is nondirected, inelastic electron tunneling triggers rotations, where the degree of directionality depends on the magnitude of the STM bias voltage. Below 17 K and 30-mV bias voltage, a constant rotation frequency is observed which bears the fundamental characteristics of quantum tunneling. The concomitantly high directionality, exceeding 97%, implicates the combination of quantum and nonequilibrium processes in this regime, being the hallmark of macroscopic quantum tunneling. The acetylene on PdGa(111) motor therefore pushes molecular machines to their extreme limits, not just in terms of size, but also regarding structural precision, degree of directionality, and cross-over from classical motion to quantum tunneling. This ultrasmall motor thus opens the possibility to investigate in operando effects and origins of energy dissipation during tunneling events, and, ultimately, energy harvesting at the atomic scales.

SUBMITTER: Stolz S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7334648 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Molecular motor crossing the frontier of classical to quantum tunneling motion.

Stolz Samuel S Gröning Oliver O Prinz Jan J Brune Harald H Widmer Roland R

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20200615 26

The reliability by which molecular motor proteins convert undirected energy input into directed motion or transport has inspired the design of innumerable artificial molecular motors. We have realized and investigated an artificial molecular motor applying scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), which consists of a single acetylene (C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>2</sub>) rotor anchored to a chiral atomic cluster provided by a PdGa(111) surface that acts as a stator. By breaking spatial inversion symmetry, the ...[more]

PMID: 32541061

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Project description:In quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum transitions is grounded on the convergence of a series of time-dependent perturbation theory. In nuclear and atomic physics, this series converges because the dynamics of quantum transitions (quantum jumps) are absent by definition. In molecular and chemical physics, on the contrary, the dynamics of "quantum" transitions, being determined by the joint motion of a light electron (or electrons) and very heavy nuclei, are present by definition, and the series of time-dependent perturbation theory becomes singular. An exception is the dynamic problem for stationary states in the Born-Oppenheimer adiabatic approximation, when the electronic subsystem turns out to be "off" from the general dynamic process and therefore is not dynamically full-fledged: it only forms an electric potential in which the nuclei oscillate. Removing the aforementioned singularity can be accomplished in two ways. The first method was consisted of introducing an additional postulate in the form of the Franck-Condon principle into molecular quantum mechanics, in which the adiabatic approximation is used. The second method was proposed by the author and consisted of damping the singular dynamics of the joint motion of an electron and nuclei in the intermediate (transient) state of molecular "quantum" transitions by introducing chaos. This chaos arises only during molecular quantum transitions and is called dozy chaos. Formally, the damping is carried out by replacing an infinitely small imaginary addition in the spectral representation of the complete Green's function of the system with its finite quantity. The damping chaos (dozy chaos) leads to the continuity of the energy spectrum in the molecular transient state, which is a sign of classical mechanics. Meanwhile, the initial and final states of the molecule obey quantum mechanics in the adiabatic approximation. Molecular quantum mechanics, which takes into account the chaotic dynamics of the transient state of molecular "quantum" transitions, can be called quantum-classical (dozy-chaos) mechanics. The efficacy of the damping for the aforementioned singularity was previously shown by dozy-chaos mechanics of elementary electron transfers in condensed matter, which is the simplest case of dozy-chaos mechanics, and its applications to a whole number of problems, especially to the optical spectra in polymethine dyes and their aggregates. This paper provides a regular exposition of this dozy-chaos (quantum-classical) mechanics of the elementary electron transfers. The main results of its applications presented in the introduction are also described.

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Molecular motor crossing the frontier of classical to quantum tunneling motion.

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Molecular motor crossing the frontier of classical to quantum tunneling motion.

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