Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EMOF (Synthesizing and Investigating the Exotic Electronic Properties of Two-Dimensional Metal-Organic Frameworks)
Período documentado: 2020-09-01 hasta 2022-08-31
In this project, we have fabricated several novel organic materials under ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions and used low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (lt-STM) with non-contact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM) to characterize their structural and electronic properties.
We managed to fabricate 2D monolayer Cu-dicyanoanthracene(DCA) metal-organic frameworks (MOF) with long-range order on an epitaxial graphene surface. The ordered DCA3Cu2 network shows a structure combining a honeycomb lattice of Cu atoms with a kagome lattice of DCA molecules and is predicted to be a 2D topological insulator. We confirm that a kagome band structure is formed in the 2D MOF near the Fermi level. In addition, we found that multiple molecular charge states can be generated and modified through the tip-induced local electric fields. This work is published in Advanced Functional Materials (2021, 31, 2100519).
We further extend the synthesis and electronic tunability of 2D MOFs beyond the electronically less relevant metal and semiconducting surfaces to superconducting substrates. Monolayer 2D Cu-DCA MOF has been well-grown on a 2D van der Waals NbSe2 superconducting substrate. This work allows us to follow the formation of the kagome band structure of the 2D MOF from the Star of David-shaped building blocks. This work is published in ACS Nano (2021, 15, 11, 17813).
These works attracted widespread attention within and even beyond the academic community. Relevant achievements have been reported by many academic media and cited in many important review articles and academic monographs.
The research outputs have attracted broad attention in related fields. The exotic electronic properties of these organic materials encouraged cooperation between chemists and organic synthesis with physicists working on transport measurements. The findings of the project will have a long-term impact with potential applications of novel organic materials in dissipationless electronics, molecular electronics, and spintronics.