Abstract
We present scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)-based single-molecule synthesis of linear metal-ligand complexes starting from individual metal atoms (iron or nickel) and organic molecules (9,10-dicyanoanthracene) deposited on an ultrathin insulating film We directly visualize the frontier molecular orbitals by STM orbital imaging, from which, in conjunction with detailed density functional theory calculations, the electronic structure of the complexes is inferred Our studies show how the order of the molecular orbitals and the spin-state of the complex can be engineered through the choice of the metal atom The high-spin iron complex has a singly occupied delocalized orbital with a large spin-splitting that points to the use of these engineered complexes as modular building blocks in molecular spintronics
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2475-2479 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Nano Letters |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 2010 |
Funding
We thank R Allenspach, D Vanmaekelbergh, and M Persson for valuable comments P L and I S acknowledge funding from Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO/Chemical Sciences, Vidi-Grant 700 56 423 and Rubicon-Grant 680 50 0907, respectively) S P acknowledges funding from Academy of Finland and computational resources from Finnish IT Center for Science and Swedish National Allocations Committee J R is grateful for funding from the Volkswagen Foundation through its Lichtenberg programme
Keywords
- Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)
- scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS)
- ultrathin insulating films
- metal-ligand complexes
- spin-split delocalized orbitals
- SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPE
- JAHN-TELLER DISTORTION
- HIGH-SPIN IRON(II)
- BOND FORMATION
- QUANTUM DOTS
- CHARGE-STATE
- SPECTROSCOPY
- MAGNETISM
- TIP
- MANIPULATION