Synthesis and Local Probe Gating of a Monolayer Metal-Organic Framework

TL;DR

This paper reports the successful fabrication of a uniform monolayer Cu-DCA MOF on graphene, with detailed structural and electronic characterization, and demonstrates local electronic control via STM/STS and DFT calculations.

Contribution

It introduces a method to synthesize and analyze a 2D MOF with controllable electronic states on an inert surface.

Findings

Achieved large-area, uniform 2D MOF on graphene.

Demonstrated local electronic state control using STM/STS.

Provided insights into charge states via DFT calculations.

Abstract

Achieving large-area uniform two-dimensional (2D) metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and controlling their electronic properties on inert surfaces is a big step towards future applications in electronic devices. Here we successfully fabricated a 2D monolayer Cu-dicyanoanthracene (DCA) MOF with long-range order on an epitaxial graphene surface. Its structural and electronic properties are studied by low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) complemented by density-functional theory (DFT) calculations. We demonstrate access to multiple molecular charge states in the 2D MOF using tip-induced local electric fields. We expect that a similar strategy could be applied to fabricate and characterize 2D MOFs with exotic, engineered electronic states.