Fig. 1: Surface synthesis and lifting-up process of 2.

a A schematic illustration of the chemical transformation involved in the study. Octadecyl benzene undergo a cascade dehydrogenation process on Cu(110) at 400 K, forming phenyl [18] conjugated polyene (1). The trans-intercoupling of 1 at 473 K yields diphenyl [36] conjugated polyene (2). b An overview STM image of molecular chains of 2 formed on Cu(110) surface. The inset displays the zoom-in STM image of a single molecular chain, accompanied by its corresponding chemical structure. The orange arrow points to the Moiré pattern in single molecule of 2. The set point parameters for the overview and zoomed-in STM images are as follows: 100 mV, 20 pA, and −200 mV, 100 pA, respectively. Scale bars are 9 nm, and 1 nm, respectively. c–e Schematic diagrams illustrate the process of lifting up a single molecule. c (e) The approach process after choosing one molecular chain (the retract process after establishing electronic contact). d The resulting current as a function of tip height during both approach (black curve) and retraction (red curve) process. Both current values reach the up limit of the preamplifier, 10 nA, with a bias voltage of 200 mV. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.