Island formation of Er(trensal) single-ion magnets on graphene observed on the micrometer scale

Jan Dreiser; Christian Wäckerlin; Michele Buzzi; Kasper S. Pedersen; Jesper Bendix

doi:10.1039/D1RA00783A

Island formation of Er(trensal) single-ion magnets on graphene observed on the micrometer scale†

Jan Dreiser,

*^ab Christian Wäckerlin,

^bc Michele Buzzi,^a Kasper S. Pedersen

^de and Jesper Bendix

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
E-mail: jan.dreiser@psi.ch

^b Institute of Physics (IPHYS), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

^c Surface Science and Coating Technologies, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Überlandstrasse 129, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland

^d Department of Chemistry, Copenhagen University, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

^e Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

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.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D1RA00783A
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 29 Jan 2021
Accepted: 21 Feb 2021
First published: 02 Mar 2021
This article is Open Access

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RSC Adv., 2021,11, 9421-9425

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Island formation of Er(trensal) single-ion magnets on graphene observed on the micrometer scale

J. Dreiser, C. Wäckerlin, M. Buzzi, K. S. Pedersen and J. Bendix, RSC Adv., 2021, 11, 9421 DOI: 10.1039/D1RA00783A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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Island formation of Er(trensal) single-ion magnets on graphene observed on the micrometer scale†

Abstract

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Island formation of Er(trensal) single-ion magnets on graphene observed on the micrometer scale

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