Abstract
We have studied the morphology of Er(trensal) single-ion molecular magnets adsorbed on graphene/Ru(0001) using X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (X-PEEM). By exploiting the elemental contrast at the erbium M5 edge we observe the formation of molecular islands of homogeneous height with a lateral size of several micrometers. The graphene/Ru(0001) substrate exhibits two different signal levels in bright-field low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) and in X-PEEM, which are ascribed to the presence of small-angle rotational domains of the graphene lattice. We find that the Er(trensal) molecules form islands solely on the bright areas, while the remaining dark areas are empty. Our results are important for the growth and study of the molecule–inorganic hybrid approach in spintronics schemes.
Highlights
IntroductionThe investigation of the growth properties of molecular nanomagnets on at surfaces[1,2,3] is highly relevant for molecular spintronics schemes involving heterostacks of different materials such as metals, two-dimensional (2D) materials like graphene,[4,5,6] hexagonal boron nitride[7,8] and other layered materials that are currently receiving enormous attention.[9,10] Here, the interface between different constituent layers[11,12] plays a crucial role in creating new properties arising from the contact of two different materials
We employ synchrotron based X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (X-PEEM) in order to investigate the organization of Er(trensal) SIMs19–21 on graphene (G) grown by chemical vapor deposition on Ru(0001).[22,23,24,25,26,27]
In conclusion graphene grown on Ru(0001) by chemical vapor deposition was characterized by low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) and by microspot low-energy electron diffraction (m-LEED), revealing the full coverage of the Ru(0001) surface by a single layer of graphene
Summary
The investigation of the growth properties of molecular nanomagnets on at surfaces[1,2,3] is highly relevant for molecular spintronics schemes involving heterostacks of different materials such as metals, two-dimensional (2D) materials like graphene,[4,5,6] hexagonal boron nitride[7,8] and other layered materials that are currently receiving enormous attention.[9,10] Here, the interface between different constituent layers[11,12] plays a crucial role in creating new properties arising from the contact of two different materials. Like in many other 2D materials, adsorption is weak and dominated by van der Waals interactions This leads to a comparably small modi cation of the adsorbates' molecular structure and magnetic properties compared to the bulk. We employ synchrotron based X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (X-PEEM) in order to investigate the organization of Er(trensal) SIMs19–21 on graphene (G) grown by chemical vapor deposition on Ru(0001).[22,23,24,25,26,27] This technique allows high spatial resolution on the scale of tens of nanometers combined with element speci city. Paper conformations of the Er(trensal) molecules strongly depend on the nature of the substrates Their adsorption and magnetic properties as monolayers have been studied recently by some of us using spatially averaging X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) at low temperatures of a few Kelvin. The LEEM image was normalized to a defocused ( at eld) image in order to account for spatially inhomogeneous sensitivity of the used multi-channel plate
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