Templating ultra-small manganese isomers with preference for adsorption sites and narrow distribution tuned by different moiré periodicities of monolayer graphene on Ru(0001)

• Published in: Nanotechnology 2013-05, Vol.24 (21), p.215302-215302
• Main Authors: Wu, Ke, Zhang, Hanjie, Wang, Yao, Lu, Yunhao, Cai, Yiliang, Song, Junjie, Li, Haiyang, Bao, Shining, He, Pimo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adsorption; Chemical synthesis methods; Clusters; Computer Simulation; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Crystallization - methods; Equations of state, phase equilibria, and phase transitions; Exact sciences and technology; Fullerenes and related materials; diamonds, graphite; General studies of phase transitions; Graphene; Graphite - chemistry; Isomerism; Macromolecular Substances - chemistry; Magnetic Fields; Manganese; Manganese - chemistry; Materials science; Materials Testing; Methods of nanofabrication; Models, Chemical; Models, Molecular; Molecular Conformation; Molecular Imprinting - methods; Monomers; Nanostructure; Nanostructures - chemistry; Nanostructures - ultrastructure; Nucleation; Order disorder; Particle Size; Physics; Ruthenium - chemistry; Scanning tunneling microscopy; Solid surfaces and solid-solid interfaces; Specific materials; Surface Properties; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties)
• ISSN: 0957-4484; 1361-6528
• DOI: 10.1088/0957-4484/24/21/215302

The process of templating a manganese nanocluster with the 12 × 12 moiré and other two slightly distorted graphene/Ru(0001) moirés was investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). At the initial stage of nucleation, different adsorption modes for Mn monomer, dimer and trimer guided by various moiré periodicities were observed. Upon Mn coverage increasing, STM measurements revealed that Mn clusters exhibit a detectable preference for adsorption sites on all the three different moirés. The most favorable adsorption sites for Mn clusters are the fcc regions, where ordering of Mn clusters was observable, and the lateral size of the clusters are tunable with coverage. A density functional theory calculation also showed that magnetism appears with a magnetic moment of 3.79μB for Mn monomer on MLG/Ru(0001).