Magnetic anisotropy of van der Waals absorbed iron(II) phthalocyanine layer onBi2Te3

Abstract

A self-assembled iron(II) phthalocyanine single layer adsorbed on the topological insulator ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Te}}_{3}$ was investigated by spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory calculations. Although the molecule-substrate interaction is dominated by a relatively weak van der Waals force, the local density of states of Fe was found to strongly depend on the adsorption sites, resulting in a supermolecular lattice. Spin-polarized measurements show that the magnetic moment of iron(II) phthalocyanine persists with an in-plane magnetic easy axis, which was further confirmed by density functional calculations.