Highly controlled deposition of organic magnets on well-organised insulator surfaces

有机和基于分子的磁体是一种广泛的新兴类别的磁性材料，其将通常与磁体相关的材料特性扩展到包括低密度、透明性、电绝缘性和低温制造，这是有机材料的典型特性。特别是，有机和分子基磁铁比传统磁铁更轻，更灵活，能源密集度更低。很容易预见这些分子如何对通过单个分子传输信息的想法产生相关影响。从这个角度来看，在有机基磁体的基底上沉积是技术应用的必要步骤。到目前为止，大部分工作都集中在这类分子的化学上。存款有机基磁体的尝试很少，大多数是在潮湿环境中进行的：从未使用过如分子束沉积/外延中的受控沉积的概念。沉积是一个挑战，我将解决一个系统的方式，与以前从未应用到分子磁体的战略，也通过使用高分辨率的软X射线技术，光谱学和显微镜，包括在同步加速器的调查。这种方法适用于第一次的知识成熟的小有机分子的薄膜生长的分子磁体类。这些里程碑是：1）在所选绝缘体衬底上生长的优化。2)分子+底物系统的描述。3)磁性的描述。4)结果的相关性：电子结构、薄膜结构、形态和磁性。通过这个项目，我打算弥合有机和分子基磁体的现状与这些材料在物理、化学、材料科学和工程学的基础知识和技术方面提供的可能性之间的差距。

Organic and molecular-based magnets are a broad, emerging class of magnetic materials that expand the materials properties typically associated with magnets to include low density, transparency, electrical insulation, and low-temperature fabrication, typical of organic materials. In particular, organic and molecular-based magnets are lighter, more flexible, and less energy intensive to make than conventional magnets. It is easily foreseen how these molecules could have a relevant impact towards the idea of transporting information via a single molecule.From this point of view, the deposition on a substrate of organic-based magnets is the necessary step for technological applications. Until now, most of the work was focused on the chemistry of this class of molecules. Few attempts to deposit organic-based magnets have been done mostly in wet environment: the concepts of controlled deposition as in molecular beam deposition/epitaxy have never been used. Deposition is the challenge that I will address in a systematic way, with a strategy never applied before to molecular magnets, also by using highly resolved soft X-ray techniques, spectroscopy and microscopy, including investigations at synchrotrons.This approach applies for the first time the knowledge matured in the growth of thin films of small organic molecules to the class of molecular magnets. The milestones are: 1) Optimization of the growth on the selected insulator substrates. 2) Description of the molecule+substrate system. 3) Description of the magnetic properties. 4) Correlation of the results: electronic structure, film structure, morphology, and magnetic properties.With this project I intend to bridge the gap between the present status in organic and molecular-based magnets and the possibility that such materials offer in terms of basic knowledge and technology, involving physics, chemistry, material science, and engineering.