Due to their chemical tunability and weak spin-orbit coupling organic semiconducting materials are promising candidates for future spintronic devices.

This motivates detailed investigations of the interface between metallo-phthalocyanines and ferromagnetic metallic substrates. Here, the morphology of ultra thin films of CuPc and FePc on a magnetized epitaxially grown Co(001) substrate were studied. Cobalt with its high degree of spin polarization at the Fermi level is a well-suited substrate for the investigation of potential spin selective and hence magnetic interaction with organic molecules as recently shown by the magnetic ordering of manganese(III)–tetraphenylporphyrinchloride on Co(001) [1]. The STM data reveal that both molecules are lying flat on the smooth Co films up to the range of just 1 monolayer. To discuss the differences in morphology for the multilayer range as shown especially for the domain structure of CuPc, theoretical calculations were performed. As it was shown recently for the interaction of porphyrin molecules with ferromagnetic substrates, the predictions of DFT+U calculations with a Coulomb U term are in good accordance with the experiments [2]. Using a structure of Fe/Cu-phthalocyanine adsorbed on a 3-layered cobalt surface, the calculations indicate a distinctly stronger interaction for the FePc, corroborating the interpretation of the STM data and the different magnetic coupling between the central atom in MPc and magnetized Co-films.

[1] A. Scheybal, T. Ramsvik, R. Bertschinger, M. Putero, F. Nolting, T.A. Jung, Chem. Phys. Lett., 411 , 214 (2005)

[2] P.M. Oppeneer, P.M. Panchmatia, B. Sanyal, O. Eriksson and Md. E.Ali, Progress in Surf. Science, 84, 18, (2009)

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1. Spin polarization at a Co₂MnSi/MgO interface studied by spin resolved photoemission
2. Experimental and theoretical investigations of the electronic and magnetic coupling of iron and copper phthalocyanine to ferromagnetic Co(100) surfaces
3. Immunosensors based on a new nanoelectromechanical columnar sensor
4. Tailoring the spin properties of metal/organic interfaces by alkali metal doping