1. Direct observation of narrow electronic energy band formation in 2D molecular self-assembly
- Author
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Jack Hellerstedt, Marina Castelli, Anton Tadich, Antonija Grubišić-Čabo, Dhaneesh Kumar, Benjamin Lowe, Spiro Gicev, Dionysios Potamianos, Maximilian Schnitzenbaumer, Pascal Scigalla, Simiam Ghan, Reinhard Kienberger, Muhammad Usman, Agustin Schiffrin, and Surfaces and Thin Films
- Subjects
General Engineering ,General Materials Science ,Bioengineering ,General Chemistry ,Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics ,ddc - Abstract
Surface-supported molecular overlayers have demonstrated versatility as platforms for fundamental research and a broad range of applications, from atomic-scale quantum phenomena to potential for electronic, optoelectronic and catalytic technologies. Here, we report a structural and electronic characterisation of self-assembled magnesium phthalocyanine (MgPc) mono and bilayers on the Ag(100) surface, via low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES), density functional theory (DFT) and tight-binding (TB) modeling. These crystalline close-packed molecular overlayers consist of a square lattice with a basis composed of a single, flat-adsorbed MgPc molecule. Remarkably, ARPES measurements at room temperature on the monolayer reveal a momentum-resolved, two-dimensional (2D) electronic energy band, 1.27 eV below the Fermi level, with a width of ∼20 meV. This 2D band results from in-plane hybridization of highest occupied molecular orbitals of adjacent, weakly interacting MgPc's, consistent with our TB model and with DFT-derived nearest-neighbor hopping energies. This work opens the door to quantitative characterisation – as well as control and harnessing – of subtle electronic interactions between molecules in functional organic nanofilms.
- Published
- 2022