Quantifying the interplay between fine structure and geometry of an individual molecule on a surface

Abstract

The pathway toward the tailored synthesis of materials starts with precise characterization of the conformational properties and dynamics of individual molecules. Electron spin resonance (ESR)-based scanning tunneling microscopy can potentially address molecular structure with unprecedented resolution. Here, we determine the fine structure and geometry of an individual titanium-hydride molecule, utilizing a combination of a newly developed millikelvin ESR scanning tunneling microscope in a vector magnetic field and ab initio approaches. We demonstrate a strikingly large anisotropy of the $g$ tensor, unusual for a spin doublet ground state, resulting from a nontrivial orbital angular momentum stemming from the molecular ground state. We quantify the relationship between the resultant fine structure, hindered rotational modes, and orbital excitations. Our model system provides avenues to determine the structure and dynamics of individual molecules.