Electronic structure of a polymer nanowire on H-terminated Si(100)

We measured current-voltage ( I - V ) characteristics of individual conducting polymers, poly(3-hexylthiophene)s (P3HTs), fixed on hydrogen-terminated Si(100) using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)∕spectroscopy. The I - V curves reveal rectification characteristics that are attributed to the shift of the energy level of the valence-band maximum of P3HT under bias. The current suppression at positive substrate bias results from the effect of differential charging of the polymer between the opposite bias polarities, indicating the possibility for doping of polymer nanowires by using a STM tip as a gate electrode.