Spin crossover materials evaporated under clean high vacuum and ultra-high vacuum conditions: from thin films to single molecules

Titaniau Palamarciuc (1) , Jenny C. Oberg (2, 3) , Fadi El Hallak (2) , Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin (2, 3, 4) , Michele Serri (5) , Sandrine Heutz (5) , Jean-Francois Létard (1) , Patrick Rosa (1)

1 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux
2 London Centre for Nanotechnology
3 Department of Physics and Astronomy [UCL London]
4 Department of Chemistry [UCL, London]
5 Department of Materials

We report clean evaporation under ultra-high vacuum conditions of two spin crossover materials, yielding either microcrystallites or homogeneous thin films. Magnetic and photomagnetic studies show that thermal and light-induced spin crossover properties are preserved. Preliminary STM imaging of sub-monolayers indicates that the deposited molecules remain intact on the surface.

Mots clés: Spin crossover; Molecules; Materials; Vacuum; Thin films

Domaines: Matériaux

Titaniau Palamarciuc, Jenny C. Oberg, Fadi El Hallak, Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin, Michele Serri, et al.. Spin crossover materials evaporated under clean high vacuum and ultra-high vacuum conditions: from thin films to single molecules. Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2012, 22 (19), pp.9690-9695. ⟨10.1039/c2jm15094h⟩. ⟨hal-00694210⟩