Behnam Azizi, Nian Lin, Guowen Kuang, Linghao Yan, Jing Liu, Muqing Hua, Jorge Lobo-Checa, Zakaria M. Abd El-Fattah, Ignacio Piquero-Zulaica, Ali Sadeghi, M. A. Kher-Elden, J. Enrique Ortega, Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (España), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Gobierno de Aragón, European Commission, Eusko Jaurlaritza, Research Grants Council (Hong Kong), Piquero-Zulaica, Ignacio [0000-0002-4296-0961], Sadeghi, Ali [0000-0002-0791-6674], Hua, Muqing [0000-0002-6741-8271], Liu, Jing [0000-0002-8120-7147], Yan, Linghao [0000-0002-4860-8096], Abd El-Fattah, Z. M. [0000-0003-2385-7704], Lobo-Checa, Jorge [0000-0003-2698-2543], Piquero-Zulaica, Ignacio, Sadeghi, Ali, Hua, Muqing, Liu, Jing, Yan, Linghao, Abd El-Fattah, Z. M., and Lobo-Checa, Jorge
On-surface metal-organic nanoporous networks generally refer to adatom coordinated molecular arrays, which are characterized by the presence of well-defined and regular nanopores. These periodic structures constructed using two types of components confine the surface electrons of the substrate within their nanocavities. However, the confining (or scattering) strength that individual building units exhibit is a priori unknown. Here, we study the modification of the substrate’s surface electrons by the interaction with a Cu-coordinated TPyB metal-organic network formed on Cu(111) and disentangle the scattering potentials and confinement properties. By means of STM and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy we find almost unperturbed free-electron-like states stemming from the rather weak electron confinement that yields significant coupling between adjacent pores. Electron plane wave expansion simulations match the superlattice induced experimental electronic structure, which features replicating bands and energy renormalization effects. Notably, the electrostatic potential landscape obtained from our ab initio calculations suggests that the molecules are the dominant scattering entities while the coordination metal atoms sandwiched between them act as leaky channels. These metal atom transmission conduits facilitate and enhance the coupling among quantum dots, which are prone to be exploited to engineer the electronic structure of surface electron gases., Financial support is acknowledged from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO, Grants No. MAT2016-78293-C6 and No. FIS2016-75862-P), from the regional Government of Aragon (Grant No. E12-17R), from the Basque Government (Grant No. IT-1255-19), from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the program Interreg V-A España-Francia-Andorra (Contract No. EFA 194/16 TNSI) and from the Hong Kong RGC 16304016.