By using on-surface synthesis, we present a chemical reaction based on the regio- and stereoselective coupling of indenyl moieties for fabricating
π-conjugated acenoindenylidene polymers, which feature a longitudinal polyacetylene backbone, on a Au(111) surface. The relationship between structural parity and electronic properties is investigated. We discover that odd-membered polymers exhibit an in-gap soliton state, which, due to their low bandgaps, spatially extends several nanometres along the longitudinal polyacetylene backbone.
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