Imaging Field-Driven Melting of a Molecular Solid at the Atomic Scale

Solid–Liquid Phase Transitions

In article number 2300542, Franklin Liou, Hsin-Zon Tsai, Alex Zettl, Johannes Lischner, Michael Crommie, and co-workers use scanning tunneling microscopy to image a solid–liquid phase transition with sub-nanometer spatial resolution at the surface of a graphene field-effect transistor. They use electrostatic gating to drive reversible transitions between a quasi-1D molecular solid and a 2D ionic liquid phase. Transiently heating and cooling the device enables non-equilibrium melting dynamics to be visualized.