PhD Thesis Defense | Rodrigo Castrillo Bodero

Rare-Earth-Noble-Metal Surface Alloys and its Interaction with Phthalocyanine Molecules

November 13, 11:00

CFM Auditorium

Candidate: Rodrigo Castrillo Bodero

Supervisors:  Frederik Schiller and Laura Fernández Gómez-Recuero

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This thesis focuses on the study of two-dimensional ferromagnetic materials, more specifically, on surface alloys of rare earth (RE) and noble metal (NM) and their interaction with monolayers (ML) of magnetic molecules. The surface alloys of rare earth and noble metal have been produced by evaporation of RE on Au(111) and Ag(111) surfaces. Subsequently, CuPc and TbPc2 monolayers have been thermally evaporated. The structure of both, the surface alloys and the monolayers deposited on top, have been studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and low energy electron diffraction (LEED). The electronic structure of the surface alloys and the molecular layers has been studied by several variants of photoemission (PES): X-ray (XPS) resonant (res-PES) and angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES). The magnetic behavior of the alloys has been studied by X-ray magnetic dichroism (XMCD). XMCD has also been used to study the magnetic coupling between the molecules and the surface alloys.

Example of the structure of a rare-earth noble-metal surface alloy and its magnetic properties prior (top) and after CuPc monolayer molecular adsorption (bottom).