Probing the Electronic Properties of Individual MnPc Molecules Coupled to Topological States

Abstract

Hybrid organic/inorganic interfaces have been widely reported to host emergent properties that go beyond those of their single constituents. Coupling molecules to the recently discovered topological insulators, which possess a linearly dispersing and spin-momentum--locked Dirac fermions, may offer a promising platform towards new functionalities. Here, we report a scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy study of the prototypical interface between MnPc molecules and a Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$ surface. MnPc is found to bind stably to the substrate through its central Mn atom. The adsorption process is only accompanied with a minor charge transfer across the interface, resulting in a moderately n-doped Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$ surface. More remarkably, topological states remain completely unaffected by the presence of the molecules, as evidenced by the absence of scattering patterns around adsorption sites. Interestingly, we show that, while the HOMO and LUMO orbitals closely resembles those of MnPc in the gas phase, a new hybrid states emerges through interaction with the substrate. Our results pave the way towards hybrid organic--topological insulator heterostructures, which may unveil a broad range of exciting and unknown phenomena.

References in corpus (3)

• A topological Dirac insulator in a quantum spin Hall phase : Experimental observation of first strong topological insulator
• Electronic and magnetic properties of molecule-metal interfaces: transition metal phthalocyanines adsorbed on Ag(100)
• Controllable magnetic doping of the surface state of a topological insulator

Cited by in corpus (7)

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• Engineering interfacial quantum states and electronic landscapes by molecular nanoarchitectures
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• Systematics of molecular self-assembled networks at topological insulators surfaces
• A Molecular Approach for Engineering Interfacial Interactions in Magnetic-Topological Insulator Heterostructures
• Tuning and Stabilizing Topological Insulator Bi2Se3 in the Intrinsic Regime by Charge Extraction with Organic Overlayers
• Single electron gating of topological insulators