The Quantum Magnetism of Individual Manganese-12-Acetate Molecular Magnets Anchored at Surfaces

TLDR

Manganese‑12‑acetate possesses a high intrinsic spin and long relaxation time, but it is unclear whether these properties persist when isolated molecules are supported on surfaces. The study aims to show that electrospray ion beam deposition can graft intact Mn(12) molecules onto metal and ultrathin insulating surfaces for submolecular imaging. Electrospray ion beam deposition was used to deposit Mn(12) onto surfaces, followed by scanning tunneling microscopy to achieve submolecular resolution. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy on a boron nitride decoupling layer revealed spin excitations from the Mn(12) ground state, and density functional theory calculations confirmed that individual molecules preserve their intrinsic spin on suitable solid supports.

Abstract

The high intrinsic spin and long spin relaxation time of manganese-12-acetate (Mn(12)) makes it an archetypical single molecular magnet. While these characteristics have been measured on bulk samples, questions remain whether the magnetic properties replicate themselves in surface supported isolated molecules, a prerequisite for any application. Here we demonstrate that electrospray ion beam deposition facilitates grafting of intact Mn(12) molecules on metal as well as ultrathin insulating surfaces enabling submolecular resolution imaging by scanning tunneling microscopy. Using scanning tunneling spectroscopy we detect spin excitations from the magnetic ground state of the molecule at an ultrathin boron nitride decoupling layer. Our results are supported by density functional theory based calculations and establish that individual Mn(12) molecules retain their intrinsic spin on a well chosen solid support.