First-principles study of Mn3 adsorbed on Au(111) and Cu(111) surfaces

Phase Coexistence of Mn Trimer Clusters and Antiferromagnetic Mn Islands on Ir(111)

Clusters supported by solid substrates are prime candidates for heterogeneous catalysis and can be prepared in various ways. While mass-selected soft-landing methods are often used for the generation of monodisperse particles, self-assembly typically leads to a range of different cluster sizes. Here we show by scanning tunneling microscopy measurements that in the initial stages of growth, Mn forms trimers on a close-packed hexagonal Ir surface, providing a route for self-organized monodisperse cluster formation on an isotropic metallic surface. For an increasing amount of Mn, first a phase with reconstructed monolayer islands is formed, until at full coverage a pseudomorphic Mn phase evolves, which is the most densely packed one of the three different observed Mn phases on Ir(111). The magnetic state of both the reconstructed islands and the pseudomorphic film is found to be the prototypical antiferromagnetic Néel state with a 120° spin rotation between all nearest neighbors in the hexagonal layer.

Growth mechanism study and band structure modulation of a manganese doped two-dimensional BlueP-Au network

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are a very promising material family. The two-dimensional inorganic metal network called BlueP-Au network is rapidly attracting the attention of researchers due to its customizable architecture, adjustable chemical functions and electronic properties. Herein, manganese (Mn) was successfully doped on a BlueP-Au network for the first time, then the doping mechanism and electronic structure evolution was studied by in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) based on synchrotron radiation, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM), Density functional theory (DFT), Low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), Angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), etc. Mn atoms tend to be stably adsorbed on two sites of the BlueP-Au network. It was the first observation that atoms can absorb on the two sites stably simultaneously. It is different from the previous adsorption models of BlueP-Au networks. The band structure was also successfully modulated, and overall down about 0.25 eV relative to the Fermi edge. It provided a new strategy for customizing the functional structure of the BlueP-Au network, which has provided new insights into monatomic catalysis, energy storage and nano electronic devices.