Molecular molds for regularizing Kondo states at atom/metal interfaces.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32444665.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-16402-6 and PMC identifier 7244723.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Adsorption of magnetic transition metal atoms on a metal surface leads to the formation of Kondo states at the atom/metal interfaces. However, the significant influence of surrounding environment presents challenges for potential applications. In this work, we realize a novel strategy to regularize the Kondo states by moving a CoPc molecular mold on an Au(111) surface to capture the dispersed Co adatoms. The symmetric and ordered structures of the atom-mold complexes, as well as the strong d<sub>π</sub>-π bonding between the Co adatoms and conjugated isoindole units, result in highly robust and uniform Kondo states at the Co/Au(111) interfaces. Even more remarkably, the CoPc further enables a fine tuning of Kondo states through the molecular-mold-mediated superexchange interactions between Co adatoms separated by more than 12 Å. Being highly precise, efficient and reproducible, the proposed molecular mold strategy may open a new horizon for the construction and control of nano-sized quantum devices.