Intermode Coupling Drives the Irreversible Tautomerization in Porphycene on Copper(111) Induced by Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy

In this contribution, we develop a nonadiabatic theory that explains, from first-principles, the recently reported irreversible <i>trans</i> → <i>cis</i> tautomerization of porphycene on Cu(111) induced by a scanning tunnelling microscope at finite bias. The inelastic contribution to the STM current is found to excite a large number of skeletal vibrational modes of the molecule, thereby inducing a deformation of the potential energy landscape along the hydrogen transfer coordinate. Above a threshold bias, the stability of the tautomers is reversed, which indirectly drives the reaction via intermode coupling. The proposed potential deformation term accounts effectively for the excitation of all internal vibrational modes without increasing the dimensionality of the problem. The model yields information about reaction rates, explains the reaction irreversibility at low temperatures, and accounts for the presence of resonant processes