Engineering hybrid Co-picene structures with variable spin coupling

Abstract

We report on the in situ engineering of hybrid Co-picene magnetic structures with variable spin coupling using a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope. Single picene molecules adsorbed on Au(111) are manipulated to accommodate individual Co atoms one by one, forming stable artificial hybrid structures with magnetism introduced by the Co atoms. By monitoring the evolution of the Kondo effect at each site of Co atom, we found that the picene molecule plays an important role in tuning the spin coupling between individual Co atoms, which is confirmed by theoretical calculations based on the density-functional theory. Our findings indicate that the hybrid metal-molecule structures with variable spin coupling on surfaces can be artificially constructed in a controlled manner.