The Role of the Magnetic Anisotropy in Atomic-Spin Sensing of 1D Molecular Chains

TL;DR

This study investigates the magnetic anisotropy of 1D metal-organic chains at the atomic level, revealing how their magnetic properties can be characterized and tuned using advanced spectroscopy and theoretical methods.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive experimental and theoretical analysis of the magnetic properties and anisotropy in 1D metal-organic chains, advancing atomic-scale magnetic characterization.

Findings

Determined spin magnitude and orientation of magnetic atoms.

Characterized magnetic anisotropy in 1D chains.

Validated spectroscopy and DFT methods for magnetic analysis.

Abstract

One-dimensional metal-organic chains often possess a complex magnetic structure susceptible to be modified by a alteration of their chemical composition. The possibility to tune their magnetic properties provides an interesting playground to explore quasiparticle interactions in low-dimensional systems. Despite the great effort invested so far, a detailed understanding of the interactions governing the electronic and magnetic properties of the low-dimensional systems is still incomplete. One of the reasons is the limited ability to characterize their magnetic properties at the atomic scale. Here, we provide a comprehensive study of the magnetic properties of metal-organic one-dimensional (1D) coordination polymers consisting of 2,5-diamino-1,4-benzoquinonediimine ligands coordinated with Co or Cr atoms synthesized in ultra-high vacuum conditions on a Au(111) surface. A combination of an integral X-ray spectroscopy with local-probe inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy corroborated by multiplet analysis, density functional theory, and inelastic electron tunneling simulations enable us to obtain essential information about their magnetic structure, including the spin magnitude and orientation at the magnetic atoms, as well as the magnetic anisotropy.